How Misinformation Gamed India’s Elections

Elections are considered to be “Maha Parv” of Indian democracy. And the extent to which it represents the will of the electorate depends on whether it is free and fair in practice. The two important factors which determine the integrity of electoral process from the perspective of the electorate are:-

• Their access to accurate information about candidates/parties and
• Whether the issues which are being raised while campaigning resonates with their socio-economic development and the broader national interest.

Let us try to understand how the embedded misinformation tweaks the above two factors. Elections have an element of marketing in it where all the parties try to persuade customers (voters) to buy their product (candidates) through different mechanisms. Like marketers, political parties strategize their election campaigning by asking what people need and sometimes this need is mis-prioritized or manufactured by putting emphasis on trivial issues. In today’s era of information age, misinformation is a key element of this electoral marketing, and can create the lasting narratives about the candidates and the parties. In the production, packaging, repackaging and circulation of such misinformation (often embedded with fake news and divisive propaganda), the role of social media has become very crucial. Also, it has the capacity to change the central and defining themes on which elections would be fought. For example, national security (and not the unemployment, farmers’ distress, gender-based violence etc) had become the defining issue of the recently held general elections, much to the surprise of many. India’s public discourse got drowned in this misinformation flood in the recent general elections. (https://www.altnews.in/how-misinformation-was-weaponized-in-2019-lok-sabha-election-a-compilation/ ).

However, this is not unique to India only. In US Presidential election 2016 also, there was controversy regarding Russian involvement in disinformation and the dissemination of fake news, often promoted on social media. Also, ahead of parliamentary elections in the European Union, far-right propaganda has flooded the facebook pages.

          There are many key players in social media’s role in India’s electoral process:-

• Political parties: – They have realized the potential of social media in connecting with the masses  ( especially the youth). On this platform, they connect directly with voters across the country at a reduced cost and greater reach than traditional media. This two-way communication helps them in promoting their controlled and well articulated viewpoint without being interrupted by journalists. However, the extent of their engagement and sophistication level varies across the party lines.
• Fan pages: – Many times, fan pages are created for political parties/leaders. Indirectly it also allows them to disseminate their propaganda stuffs without being held accountable.
• Individual profiles:- Today, we can also see many social media profiles where users (vigilante groups, extremists/hardliners etc) regularly comes live on face book and spreads venom against others on the basis of sex, religion, caste etc. It reinforces the existing prejudices and polarizes the voters by evoking fear psychosis.

Mainstream political landscape is being shadowed by these fringe elements (gauged by the likes. shares and comments they get on social media) and many times, they are directly/indirectly associated with the mainstream political parties (https://scroll.in/latest/918572/facebook-says-it-has-removed-687-pages-accounts-linked-to-congress-it-cell).  The various elements of this coordinated network are intertwined and are used to misinform the public through circulation of manipulated/doctored photos/videos. And it is being done on a daily basis. Just look at the recent examples. In one case, ISIS destroying artefacts in Iraq was being shared as the incident of breaking Vidyasagar statue in Kolkata. In another case, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was misquoted as confirming Pulwama attack as a well-planned conspiracy of the BJP.

          While Facebook has much more visibility and surveillance into what is being shared on its platform, it becomes much more complicated with WhatsApp. Its end-to-end encryption technology is a valuable privacy tool. But, company has very less visibility into what is being shared and there is no way to track down disinformation/fake news because of its encrypted nature. This has made it more vulnerable to misuse, especially in elections where it becomes a platform for spreading campaign-related misinformation.

With the surge in internet penetration in India and availability of cheap data, people are relying on these online platforms for the daily news.  And they start sharing/retweeting it. But the pertinent question is why people share fake news without ascertaining its authenticity? What is the motive associated with it? Being overwhelmed with the volume of information confronting them (which is often sensational and outrageous), the excitement of sharing proves to be irresistible. Many times they do it to verify it within their social circle. Many also take it as their social/civic/moral responsibility duty to do so, believing that it might benefit others and keep them safe.

Being coming from their friends’ circle, there is an undercurrent of trust too, which increases one’s likelihood of accepting it as true. With no differing information to counter the untruths or the general agreement within isolated social groups, it becomes the accepted truth. Many times manipulated/erroneous data comes in form of graphics, pie chart, info graphics etc and people gets fascinated by it and believes it as coming from sources which has done genuine research into it. Many times, misinformation is circulated as being coming from reputed sources like UN Agencies, BBC, Time etc which increases its credibility in the eyes of social media users. Also, common people does not have the capabilities and resources to distinguish manipulated files from authentic ones, which has been doctored using the techniques like artificial intelligence, deep machine learning etc.

During elections, misinformation can also be used for building a personality cult around a leader by skilfully exploiting the social media. In another way, it is also achieved through dissemination of political messages and memes that demonize and denigrate the opponent. Much of it is achieved through forwarding/sharing messages on the social media groups. For example, in the aftermath of the Balakot air strikes, there was a surge in the propagation of misinformation. And as per many surveys, this will play an influential role in the ongoing election. However, this strategy increases the bitterness among the parties/candidates and symbolizes election as misinformation warfare, rather than the largest festival of Indian democracy.

Now, what is the role of traditional media then? Are they not supposed to act as gatekeepers to such misinformation circulation and play the role of fact checkers? Is it not their role to raise the awareness level of electorates by running the programs based on facts and dispelling the myths and misconceptions from the public discourse? They have failed.

• One reason being, in the so-called information age, modern media is increasingly getting decentralized due to the importance of social media. This free media provides users with the capabilities to spread information quickly to other users without confirming its truthfulness (Remember, there is no editor in the world of social media!).

• Another reason being, in the recent times, press/media itself is directly/indirectly involved in propagating misinformation. For example, News Broadcasting Standards Authority ordered a national news broadcaster to apologize for malicious coverage. In a different case, activists wanted one another channel to be sued for hate speech.

In last few years, many journalists have started speaking like politicians and rather than fact checking or critical analyzing the speeches, they seem to be explaining or endorsing those speeches. They are even very quick in branding/categorizing activists under the fancy names as Maoists, Urban Naxals, anti-nationals etc. Such branding does not merely tarnish the reputation of the subject of the speech, but it also has the potential to incite violence/hatred against them (a sort of media trial!).  There is a very thin line between fact-reporting and the political views of a journalist. Blurring this line will have a negative consequence as the media content are assumed to have a greater element of authenticity as compared to the personal opinions of the vested interests.

It may not be an exaggeration to state that misinformation had been the main weapon in this electoral battleground of 2019. It is a disturbing trend, especially in a country like India where electoral literacy is very low. (By electoral literacy, I mean the state of mind where the voter can make an informed decision on the basis of facts and critical analysis, rather than on the basis of false promises, misinformation and the hateful rhetoric).

Production of misinformation by few people and its consumption by the vast majority should not become the norm. Otherwise, in the context of misinformation warfare, mob mentality can become a norm (look at the examples of mob lynching and vigilante justice in cow-related and child kidnapping cases), reshaping the world of social media into an anti-social one. It asks for bringing about behavioural changes in the public common sense. It includes mass outreach to inculcate the habit of fact checking, reverse image checking etc before clicking the ‘share’/ ‘retweet’ button.  

There is a need for sensitizing people towards media (including social media) consumption and helping them in differentiating misinformation and the truth. Everyone (Media, Fact checkers, Digital companies, ECI, Civil Society and Government) has to play their respective role in this regard.  Building an informed and engaged citizenry who critically examines the information being circulated will have the maximum impact in fighting the menace of misinformation.