False narratives, conspiracy theories mark Lok Sabha election campaign
nger at the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
False claims about EVM fraud, communally polarising posts, the use of deepfake to denigrate candidates, and politically loaded videos and images to tilt the playing eld have blurred the line between fact and ction.
Complaints
With its high mobile phone penetration, computer literacy, overwhelming social media involvement and a young demographic hooked to Instagram reels, opposing political alliances have electronically condensed their campaigns to t the size of mobile phone screens. However, the fallout of online misinformation and slander often spilt into the physical world, resulting in complaints and political sparring.
On Thursday, KPCC acting president M.M. Hassan moved the Election Commission against the CPI (M)’s ocial newspaper Deshabhimani. Mr. Hassan alleged that the newspaper published a headline caricaturing the Congress as a vile party xated on using explicit content to denigrate rivals. An online slander campaign against former Health Minister and CPI(M) candidate in Vadakara K.K. Shailaja reportedly prompted the “editorial pushback.”
Opposing social media campaigns have targeted candidates by accentuating their misstatements, awkward moments and past ga¤es to perforate the seriousness of their respective political messaging.
The State police said they have taken cognisance of 42 instances of misuse of social media to spread election misinformation, target women, spread lies about EVMs and create communal and social polarisation. However, the detections so far are merely the iceberg’s tip.
Nevertheless, opposing fronts seem condent that politically motivated falsehoods on social media would have some transient sensational value but little impact on the choice of Kerala voters whose political views are arguably hard to budge.
Police say they have taken cognisance of 42 instances of misuse of social media