TNM finds evidence of multiple networks of Facebook pages masquerading as digital creators spending huge money to promote pro-BJP narratives, targeting parties in Delhi, West Bengal, Odisha, and four southern states.
This story is part of Ballot Bucks, an exclusive series in which The News Minute and News Laundry look closely at election spending.
“I think the real name of this Kejru will not be Arvind, [but] Abdullah,” said a spiteful post published on the Facebook page Sidha Chashma on March 31. It accused Kejriwal, currently in jail for his alleged role in the excise policy scam, of scuttling a sexual violence case because the medical college professor acccused of the crime was a Muslim called Salim Shaikh. The content was a blatant violation of Facebook’s community guidelines mandated for pages promoting political content.
The Sidha Chashma account, which identifies as a digital creator, has a cartoon as its display picture – a man with a Nehru cap and oversized spectacles. Created on March 5, 2024, the page, with over 800 followers, has since spent more than Rs 21 lakh to promote the scurrilous content it serves – mostly memes, videos, and posters – targeting rival politicians from the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress, and the Samajwadi Party.
A TNM investigation has uncovered three shadowy networks of social media pages that are promoting right-wing narratives against Opposition parties in the guise of political satire to a vast online audience, through paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. These networks, leveraging the reach and targeting capabilities of Meta’s advertising platform, have together spent more than Rs 7 crore since 2019 to infiltrate news feeds and influence public opinion with biased narratives.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here.