THE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIVERSE

Active social media population

WORLD 3.96 BILLION

46% of the total population

INDIA 376.1 MILLION

28% of the total population

17 HOURS

Average time Indian social media users spend on platforms each week, more than social media users in China and the US

3,835 CRORE

Or 28% of the total digital ads, worth Rs 13,683 crore, spent on social media in 2019

98%

of Facebook’s global revenue comes from advertisements

87%

of Twitter’s revenue came from advertisements; 13% came from data licensing

said the company regularly removed coordinated influence campaigns. Predictably, a war of words erupted between the BJP government and the Opposition over the reports. The Congress and the TMC wrote to Facebook demanding that the allegations be scrutinised. In another letter to Facebook, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union minister for law & justice, communications and electronics & IT, claimed that its employees were “on record” abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues and that these biases reflected in the social media platform’s operations.

The controversy indicates how social media fashions narratives. Platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and instant messaging app WhatsApp, have not only democratised public opinion but also spurred political and social movements—protests in Iran over rigging of the 2009 presidential election, Arab Spring in Egypt (2010), Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement (2011) and the Nirbhaya gang-rape protests (2012), to name a few.

Over the years, spontaneous public opinion on social media has given way to curated discourses orchestrated by political parties, groups, individuals and corporate houses, often determining which narrative will get national attention. For billions, social media has become the primary source of information, giving it unprecedented power to influence the discourse in almost every aspect of mass communication. “Social media discourse may not reflect the real public mood, but it does affect the minds of users. People fear they would be ostracised if they are not part of the popular or majoritarian narrative on an issue,” says Priyanka Chaturvedi, deputy leader of the Shiv Sena in the Rajya Sabha.

Chaturvedi cites the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death to add: “So many Twitter accounts came up just to tweet on the case, creating an impression that this was the most hotly discussed issue on social media, whereas other important issues do not get the same attention.” Just how a ‘national narrative’ can be built through social media is evident from the trending Twitter hashtag #CBIForSSR—in support of a CBI inquiry into Rajput’s death—that has generated nearly 3 million tweets.

Social media platforms have often faced accusations of cultivating narratives in exchange for money or favours. The networks were seen as taking little tangible action when fake narratives for and against the CAA (Citizenship Amendment

Act) and NRC (National Register of Citizens) spread, even stoking violence. When hate speeches by politicians amplified during the Delhi election this year and the riots that followed, social media platforms remained mute spectators.

As usual, political parties trade charges instead of ending this spiteful game. If Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate has claimed that Ankhi Das’s sister was an activist of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya alleged that Siddharth Majumdar, a Facebook executive, is associated with the Congress. “At first, it was about the platform being misused. Now, it’s about Facebook misusing the platform,” says Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, a mobile and digital news portal. “We do not exactly know the accusations of biases against the BJP or the Congress [within Facebook] because these have been anecdotal. This is why we need greater scrutiny of large platforms like Facebook.” Facebook did not respond to queries from india today.

Prasad, in his letter to Facebook, not only dismissed “the spate of anonymous, source-based reports” as a power struggle within Facebook for ideological hegemony, but even claimed that the Facebook India team is dominated by people with a certain political leaning. “We have seen in India that right from the assessors for on-boarding factcheckers to the fact-checkers themselves, harbour publicly expressed political biases,” wrote Prasad, demanding action against “anarchic and radical elements” who use Facebook to “destroy social order, recruit people and assemble them for violence”. Prasad did not respond to a questionnaire sent by india today.

THE MISINFORMATION WAVE

The use of social media platforms for hate mongering and pushing fake news has been a rapidly growing problem.