The leaked American diplomatic cables released by whistleblower WikiLeaks this week have not only taken the world’s governments and financial markets by storm but have also caused a stir in Pakistani cyberspace. Pakistan has topped the global charts for 'WikiLeaks' searches on Google.
Pakistan's obsession with the news is no secret. Being Pakistani means being accustomed to the many 'happenings' that fuel a booming news media industry. Whether it is bomb blasts, natural disasters, match-fixing scandals, crime, corruption allegations, or military operations, the news media is never short of things to report. Pakistani viewers and readers have a healthy diet of news to feed off, built up over years of a developing media landscape.
Among the top 20 most visited websites by Pakistani internet users, according to Alexa, four are news websites belonging to mainstream media outlets. When it comes to secrets contained in leaked diplomatic cables, the value of the news seems to increase even more. Statistics from Google Trends revealed that Pakistan had the highest number of searches for WikiLeaks in the past seven days (as of December 1). Italy follows Pakistan with 18% fewer searches, followed by Finland, Israel, Estonia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Norway, Algeria, and Poland, respectively.
These statistics highlight the importance given to WikiLeaks by Pakistani internet users compared to those in any other country. However, they may not fully represent the situation as the sample for these results is based only on searches done on the Google website, ignoring WikiLeaks-related content accessed directly through news and other related websites.
