Resisting erasure: tweeting against enforced disappearances in Balochistan

The practice of enforced disappearance is one of the most extreme manifestations of state violence, exemplifying the opaque nature of the state, particularly with regard to the management of its peripheries. Pakistan is one of many countries where this practice is widespread. Many of those missing are from Balochistan—the country’s most underdeveloped province, which has been the site of an ongoing insurgency for several decades. Despite the thousands affected, this issue rarely makes it onto the national media. For this reason, activists and family members of missing persons increasingly rely on the digital sphere, particularly Twitter, to call for the return of their loved ones and to highlight the state’s violent practices. This paper analyses the digital tactics of Baloch activists and family members of the disappeared as they forge an affective digital counterpublic. Interview findings demonstrate the double-edged nature of social media, which is also used by the state for the purposes of surveillance, to further their narrative, and to frighten critics into silence. The paper highlights the multiple affective meanings Twitter holds for the Baloch as a space that represents both promise and risk for members of marginalised groups.