Social media played an important role in the 2019 Indian general election. With over 500 million internet users in India, most accessing the internet on mobile phones, political parties extensively used platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp for campaigning. This allowed greater voter engagement and interaction beyond traditional rallies. However, there were also concerns about the spread of misinformation and fake news on social media platforms to influence voters. Both the Election Commission of India and social media companies took steps to curb false information online, but regulating social media content remains a challenge given its scale and speed. Fact-checking by mainstream media and independent organizations is needed to help voters identify fake news.

1. Role of Social Media in
General Election in India

2. Media is sometimes referred to as the 4th pillar of the democracy because its role is to serve as
the watchdog. watching over those who we elect to oversee our national and local
governments on behalf of those they serve, the citizens.
However, some people believe that not all media is objective and, in some cases, show bias in
reporting by either not covering something it doesn’t want the public to know or covering
something in perhaps much greater detail than might be necessary.

3. • Media is a KEY LINKAGE INSTITUTION between the people and policymakers
• Brings political information to the public on a daily basis
-Television, radio, magazines, books, Internet, etc.
• Media has a profound effect on public policy because most people rely on the
information from the media to make their choices in an election
• So, if the media chooses not to cover something, then most people will never get that
information

4. Source: https://www.commonsense.org/our-impact/

6. India TV* and Digital Video** Ad Spending, 2018-2022
(in billions)

7. Sets the public agenda
- Most people rely on the media for all or most of their information regarding
politics
- Whatever the media chooses to talk about is the information that people
receive (Agenda Setting)
- If the media chooses not to talk about it, then people are generally uninformed
about the issue (Agenda Cutting)
- If people are uninformed about the issue then it will not be a priority in the
legislative arena

8. The 17th Lok Sabha elections in India was unique in many aspects; the one aspect which was
noticed by the people about the role of Social Media in the election. Apart from conventional
political rallies, door to door campaign, canvassing, bhaashans, processions etc. The new form of
interaction and engagement with the voter came into existence in the form of Social Media
platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Also, Whatsapp-a Facebook owned messaging
service emerged as one important communication tool and used by many people in society. Now,
political debates are driven by likes, shares, and comments on Social Media. Although, this is not
the first time that Social Media used for communication and campaigning purpose, even in the
16th Lok Sabha elections political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP), and Indian National Congress (INC) seek suggestions from the Social Media users for their
election manifestoes, but people’s participation was limited. However, this time around it will be
more because the internet user base in the country estimated to be 566 million (as of December
2018) according Kantar IMRB Report. In urban areas, it estimated to be 315 million, whereas in
rural areas it is 251 million internet users. Overall, there is a (40%) internet penetration in the
country. Interestingly, more than (95%) of users access the internet on their mobile phones. The
Facebook users in India is the largest in the world with more than 300 million people using it,
whereas Twitter users in India about 30 million.

9. No doubt, because due to the emergence of social media, it gives voices to voiceless
and fractured common people, which is negligible in the conventional and stereotype
media. It also emerges as an important source of news for the people. One main
reason to the growth of social media is youth, because they dedicated most of their
time to social media; and Political parties are now very well aware of the fact that
social media will influence young generation. This time in our country we had 130
million first time voters, out of which over 15 million voters between 18 to 19 years of
age. Also, the Political parties through social media got information regarding voters
like and dislike; and manipulate them accordingly, especially the Swing Voters, whose
views was changed through tailoring information. In this scenario, the political parties
and politicians want to use Social Media for communication and campaigning purpose
as much as possible to influence voters, which saves their time, resources and more
importantly it gives larger audience for interaction.

10. The good example is the success of AAP party in 2013 assembly election. After that
slowly many other political parties and politicians started giving importance to Social
Media. At present BJP has 10.7 million followers on Twitter, INC has 4.96 million
followers and AAP has 4.79 million followers. Similarly, in Facebook BJP has 15.68
million people following, INC has 5.25 million people following and AAP has 3.56
million people following. As far as the politicians are concerned, our Prime Minister
Shri Narendra Modi is at the top with 46.36 million followers in the twitter, 14.62
million followers for Arvind Kejriwal and 8.92 million followers for Rahul Gandhi. In the
case of Facebook Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has 43.04 million people
following, Arvind Kejriwal has 7 million people following and Rahul Gandhi has 2.54
million people following. Globally, it is Ex President of United States of America Barack
Obama, the first politician to successfully used social media during his two continuous
election campaigns (2008 and 2012) respectively.

11. Fake News and Mis/Dis-Information
Apart from the positive part of Social Media in politics especially in the last few
years, we are seeing more negative part not only from the people within the
country but also outside the country. In the 21st century, the first election in the
world where Social Media tools used to interfere in the election process by the
outsiders and discussed globally is about 2016 American Presidential election,
which shook America’s political landscape. The fake Social Media accounts
established posed as United States citizens to influence the election through
their posts and images. Even, Facebook admits that Russian Groups Company
bought $ 100,000 worth of ads, to spread disinformation and propaganda in a
society where social and political divide exists and these advertisements saw by
10 million American people. In this situation, it will be very keenly observed by
the experts how much influence do the Social Media platforms have on voter’s
opinions, ideas, and analysis in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

12. The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced various measures to curb fake
news and mis/dis-information on Social Media platforms. Like, all candidates will
have to submit details of their Social Media accounts; and political advertisements
on Social Media will require prior certification from Media Certification and
Monitoring Committees. Similarly, expenditures on political advertisements on
Social media will be included in the expenditure accounts of the parties and
candidates. Also, to counter hate speeches and fake news, the Social Media
platforms will appoint grievance officers to take action against objectionable
content posted on their platforms. Even, according to the news report, Facebook
will establish an ‘Operations Centre’ in Delhi, to monitor election fake news content
in its platform.

13. It’s good that both ECI and Social Media platforms are taking actions in curbing
fake news, hate speeches and mis/dis-information. But, we should remember
that it is easier said than done, because of the sheer volume of information that
generated and so quickly it spreads, and bad past experiences in Social Media
platforms. There will be individuals and groups, who frequently change their
names to get more followers in order to spread fake news, hate speeches etc;
and try to exploit the social and political division in the society. Also, in India, we
don’t have a law which can regulate Social Media, especially Section 126 and
other Sections of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951 do not apply. As
already mentioned with the increasing internet penetration and Smartphone, the
users of Social Media are increasing. However, for most of the users, it’s a very
big challenge to differentiate between what is fake (biased, manipulative and
tailoring) and real news. In this scenario, the need of the hour is fact check
journalism in the mainstream media which is missing in our society at present.
Also, more independent individual or organization fact -checker should come
forward to help in identifying the fake news. If it is left unchecked then it can
undermine democratic processes in our country which is the largest in the world
in terms of the electorate( 900 million).

14. THANKS