Andrew Korybko vs. Donald Lu: Free Speech vs. Conspiratorial Meddling

The point being made by contrasting my free speech on Twitter with Lu’s conspiratorial meddling behind the scenes is that the public opinion of a private citizen is meaningless in the grander scheme of things and cannot be categorized the same way as a foreign official’s thuggish threat that was conveyed behind closed doors and ultimately resulted in a regime change in another country.

Shehbaz Sharif, who was installed as the incumbent Pakistani Prime Minister following his collusion with the US in the post-modern coup against Imran Khan, was so offended by my latest critical tweet reminding him of his criminal past that he ordered his trolls to launch the #BanAndrewKorybko hashtag campaign in a desperate attempt to get me deplatformed from Twitter. Many of the accounts participating in it copy and paste either the exact same message or a slight variation thereof which claims that me expressing my freedom of speech by criticizing him on social media is supposedly akin to “meddling”. The opportunity presented by the enormous attention that their campaign has counterproductively given to my work enables me to make a major point about the post-modern coup.

Criticizing a foreign leader on social media isn’t “meddling” by any legitimate definition of that word. Every user has the right to peacefully express their opinion on Twitter about whatever it may be and for whatever reason they want so long as it complies with the terms of service. Reminding someone of their criminal past and criticizing their involvement in a US-orchestrated but domestically driven “lawfare” regime change operation against a democratically elected leader is simply the freedom of speech in practice. The same can be said for a Pakistani who shares their views about the Kashmir Conflict or condemns Islamophobia in Western countries. As long as someone isn’t agitating for violence, promoting illegal sexual content, or organizing foreign rallies, et al., then they aren’t “meddling”.

By contrast, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu engaged in the dictionary definition of meddling earlier this spring despite his supporters at home and in Pakistan gaslighting that he was just expressing his freedom of speech. According to reports connected to the cypher that was sent from the Pakistani Embassy in DC to Islamabad as related by former Prime Minister Khan, Lu threatened that “Pakistan will suffer consequences” if the no-confidence motion that hadn’t yet been tabled doesn’t result in his ouster. Should he be overthrown, Lu reportedly said, then “all will be forgiven” in bilateral relations. I’m a private citizen sharing my opinion in public and have no political power while Lu shared his thuggish threat behind closed doors and represents the world’s top meddler.

There’s no credible comparison between me criticizing Shehbaz Sharif on Twitter and Lu very strongly implying to the then-Pakistani Ambassador to the US that his government had better remove its incumbent leader otherwise it “will suffer consequences”. I’m just one man while Lu is a foreign official connected with the former unipolar hegemon’s military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”). My words are meaningless in terms of shaping international events while his are meaningful since they signaled a statement of hostile intent that prompted the Pakistani authorities to summon a senior US diplomat in order to lodge a complaint against Lu’s unacceptable interference. People might like and reshare my tweet, but intelligence operatives took action after his words.

The point being made by contrasting my free speech on Twitter with Lu’s conspiratorial meddling behind the scenes is that the public opinion of a private citizen is meaningless in the grander scheme of things and cannot be categorized the same way as a foreign official’s thuggish threat that was conveyed behind closed doors and ultimately resulted in a regime change in another country. By falsely claiming that my criticisms of Shehbaz Sharif constitute “meddling”, his trolls have inadvertently drawn attention to Donald Lu’s actual meddling that I decided to bring up in order to defend my personal integrity. I’m adamantly against all forms of actual meddling, which is precisely why I despise Shehbaz Sharif so much since he came to power as a result of such underhanded methods, and would never meddle anywhere.

Shehbaz Sharif is so scared of the example that I’ve set as a foreign expert on Pakistan who doesn’t shy away from publicly criticizing his post-modern coup that he’s now ordered his country’s cyber warriors to turn away from their more pressing task of identifying terrorist plots online in order to participate in his little pet project connected to the #BanAndrewKorybko hashtag. He hates that I’m one of the only people abroad to speak truth to power and call him out for what he did. My words seem to resonate widely with his people and encourage them to continue expressing their constitutional rights in the face of his government’s post-modern martial law that’s already seen many of them intimidated, harassed, and even harmed simply for sharing similar opinions about his lack of legitimacy.

This unpopular American-installed leader lost the battle for hearts and minds from the get-go before I ever tweeted any criticism against him since many were ashamed that a literal criminal was being imposed upon them from abroad as their Prime Minister. Shehbaz Sharif is obviously self-conscious of his scandalous rise to power and that’s why he and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah have aggressively sought to snuff out all contrarian opinions from society, but they can’t control social media nor foreigners like me who use it to share my opinion about their post-modern coup regime. They’re operating from the playbook of last century’s coups and haven’t evolved with the times, which speaks to how clumsily the entire post-modern coup was orchestrated and imposed upon the population.

When the critical words of a foreign expert such as me scare a US-installed head of state into ordering an information warfare campaign to get my account censored from Twitter, then it shows that their legitimacy at home is even weaker than was previously thought. The fact that I’m the subject of attention of Pakistan cyber warriors who should in all honesty be focusing on rooting out terrorist plots online instead of artificially amplifying the #BanAndrewKorybko hashtag on Twitter shows that Shehbaz Sharif is losing his cool and isn’t fit to lead Pakistan (not that he ever was, mind you). As they say, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”, and Shehbaz Sharif has gone crazy if he thinks that ordering a troll campaign against me is more important than rooting out terrorist plots online.

Since I clearly have his attention after my recent Tweet and am therefore sure that he’ll be made aware of this article, I want to directly challenge him to account for why he believes that it’s more important for professional Pakistani cyberwarriors to try to get me censored from Twitter than to focus those efforts on rooting out terrorist plots online or at least trying to deplatform those abroad who objectively constitute pressing national security threats to his country. My publicly expressed opinion on Twitter might hurt his feelings but it doesn’t endanger the security of the same people who he’s supposed to defend like the words of those who agitate for terrorism against Pakistan. They, not me, should be the focus of Pakistani cyberwarriors, and it’s a shame that Shehbaz Sharif thinks differently.