The Interplay of Feminism, Populism and Surveillance Capitalism: A Case Study of Pakistan.

In the current political hemisphere, a global fascist movement is on the rise, where various right-wing
political entities are glued together through conservative politics of anti-genderism while portraying
feminism as a product of neo-liberal order that seeks to destroy family structure.
Against this backdrop, this empirical research aims at analyzing the impacts of digital influence
infrastructures on women, especially in the context of populist politics. Using the lens of intersectional
feminism, this research aims at developing linkages between surveillance capitalism, feminism, and
populism in the global south, with special reference to the populist politics of Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI), Pakistan.
Surveillance capitalism is an economic order that objectifies, commodifies, and sells online human
experience in behavioral futures markets to others' benefit using techniques like targeted advertisement.
This research investigates how this digital influence infrastructure is being used by populist parties as a
novel part of the patriarchal apparatus for control.
It further aims at exploring questions like: what does intersectional feminism have to offer about our
understanding of the use of surveillance capitalist infrastructure and techniques by populist political
parties? How women are being targeted by this digital influence infrastructure with an aim to incorporate
them in the right-wing propaganda?
The end goal of the research is to develop important linkages between surveillance capitalism, feminism,
and populism through empirical research and to possibly develop a feminist theory of surveillance
capitalism.