September 27, 2023

More than two billion people use WhatsApp in 180 countries.

However, the social media platform is seeing little or no growth in users in the United States, its most lucrative market. It has around 100 million users, less than a third of the U.S. population. Also, the app is banned in China, the world’s biggest market. 

Eager to grow revenues and earnings, Meta, parent of WhatsApp and Facebook - like Alphabet, owner of YouTube, and Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter - are aggressively pursuing the Indian market, given its mostly young 1.4 billion people. India is already the largest market for WhatsApp, with more than 500 million users, as well as for Facebook, with more than 370 million; X has more than 27 million users in the country.

This week the Washington Post published a series of three stories on the political misuse of social media in India. The Post journalists got a rare inside look at how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist allies manipulate social media for political advantage, confirming reports by independent media and human rights groups.

The first part examines the BJP’s use of WhatsApp to build a massive propaganda machine of 150,000 activists, to spread “disinformation and religiously divisive” posts. In addition to the party’s official online efforts, according to the Post, the party “quietly collaborates with content creators” who run what are known as “third-party” or “troll” pages, and who specialize in creating incendiary posts designed to go viral on WhatsApp and fire up the party’s base. “Often, they painted a dire — and false — picture of an India where the nation’s 14 percent Muslim minority, abetted by the secular and liberal Congress party, abused and murdered members of the Hindu majority, and where justice and security could be secured only through a vote for the BJP.”

In part 3, the Post describes a new generation of Hindu vigilantes who “frequently stream their armed attacks against Muslims on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, amassing large followings and winning BJP protection. While rights activists have repeatedly flagged hateful influencers to social media companies, the accounts are rarely removed.” In fact, in October 2022, Manesar, one of the vigilantes, received a “Silver Creator” award from YouTube for reaching 100,000 subscribers. “A cycle of soaring viewership and increasing violence followed.”

“Social media platforms and other Big Tech firms, protective of their position in one of the world’s largest markets, have often given Modi and his allies what they want,” according to the second part of The Washington Post series.

In fact, the companies have been known to appoint officials in India who are sympathetic to Modi’s agenda, including former Modi staffers. In 2020, for instance, Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, appointed Shivnath Thukral to oversee public policy in India on an interim basis. Thukral had worked on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national election campaign in 2014.

Prior to joining Meta in 2017, Thukral had also collaborated with Hiren Joshi, who is the prime minister’s head of communications, on a pro-Modi website called Modi Bharosa, or “Modi is Trust,” The Post reported. “The site churned out glowing articles about Modi’s economic record and accused his political rivals of fomenting riots or misgoverning the country.” In November 2022, Meta appointed Thukral as head of public policy in India on a permanent basis.

The U.S. social media companies have at times tried to police the incendiary content, the Post reports. “But often they have struggled — or willingly turned a blind eye.”

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