Gandhis Attack Facebook, Say It Is Being Used To Hack Democracy

Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday urged the government to put an end to their “systematic influence and interference” in electoral politics by global social media companies.

Speaking during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said global companies such as Facebook and Twitter are being increasingly used “to shape political narratives by leaders, political parties and their proxies”.

Describing it as an issue of paramount importance, she said “the rising danger of social media being abused to hack our democracy” and added it has repeatedly come to public notice that global social media companies “are not providing a level playing field to all political parties.”

Referring to a report published in the Al Jazeera and The Reporters’ Collective claiming that Facebook had offered BJP cheaper deals for election advertisements as compared to other political parties.

“These reports show a growing nexus between big corporations, the ruling establishment and global social media giants like Facebook,” she said.

Gandhi’s claims find evidence in an investigation by Reporters’ Collective, a non-profit media organisation based in India, and ad.watch, a research project studying political advertisements on social media. The investigations by the two organisations revealed that besides Mukesh Ambani, Facebook, too, played a role in helping BJP win elections.

The data collected between February 2019 and November 2020 by the agencies revealed that Facebook offered cheaper advertising deals to BJP.

“In nine of the 10 elections, including the national parliamentary elections of 2019 that the BJP won, the party was charged a lower rate for advertisements than its opponents,” Al Jazeera reported, citing an investigation by Reporters’ Collective.

Similar was the case in state elections of Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra.

While the BJP and affiliated organisations were charged Rs 41,844 ($546) to show one advertisement a million times, Congress had to pay 29% higher, Rs 53,776.

The investigations published in qz.com pointed out that the favourable price helped BJP reach more people, an unfair advantage over others.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company stated in reply that “We apply our policies uniformly without regard to anyone’s political positions or party affiliations.”

Among the rules laid down by Election Commission of India (ECI) include a cap on the campaign expenditures of political parties to allow a level playing field. Facebook, however, has enabled the BJP in reaching more people at lower rates, the qz.com reported.