Indians often derisively refer to the ‘wisdom of WhatsApp University’, highlighting the extent to which content on the platform is trusted, shared and sometimes acted upon even when it is unreliable. The app’s influence is expanding quickly in a country where over 600 million people own smartphones.

The impact of WhatsApp and other apps is set to be immense as India votes in its national elections, billed as the world’s largest democratic exercise and involving over 960 million voters. Candidates are using social media extensively as they campaign in far-flung parts of their constituencies, each hosting nearly two million voters.

Quick messages circulate in multiple languages on social media apps, allowing even voters with basic literacy to participate in political discourse. Unlike static and time-consuming newspapers and journals, social media platforms are accessible to a diverse population. The election campaign is also projected on television, where over 400 channels show news-related programs in many languages. As these channels are vying for target rating points, discussions on many of these platforms end up as cacophony with aggressive participants clashing verbally.

Over the past few years, several feature-length films have been made that critics call ‘propaganda’ as they have been made to suit the political agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They have been timed for release during the elections, are promoted widely through social media and carry official sanctions in the form of tax concessions and awards.

On 8 April 2024, the Supreme Court of India repealed the Madras High Court’s decision to refuse bail to YouTuber ‘Sattai’ Durai Murugan who was accused of making derogatory remarks on YouTube against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. The apex court cautioned that ahead of the elections, they would not start putting behind bars everyone who makes allegations on YouTube.

Social media gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic when home-bound people found them useful for accessing information. Many of the most popular areas of discourse centred around supposed medical advice from unknown experts. Social media influencers would urge multiple recipients to adopt their health advice and spread it ‘for the sake of humanity’.

Smartphones have triggered an information revolution. But as happens with any innovation, there have been negative effects. Social media posts have caused sectarian tensions along caste and faith lines. Muslims and Dalits, in particular, have been targeted.

But social media has a positive side as well. Unsavoury incidents have been filmed and spread on social media, causing public protests and compelling the police and courts to take action. In 2022, secret filming by a phone captured protesting farmers being mowed down by a car, and led to the prosecution of the son of one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ministers as well as a provincial legislator. Another major controversy emerged amid the elections in the state of Karnataka, with two lawmakers charged with sexual assault as well as abducting a female employee at their farmhouse. Police have copies of secretly filmed videos that capture the alleged acts of violence.

Social media has also highlighted many incidents involving ‘saffron-clad vigilantes’ — supporters of Modi’s Hindu nationalist ideology — and an incident in which policemen were filmed whipping a Dalit boy. These social media videos have often forced the authorities to act.

This is India’s most anticipated national election in recent memory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has over 96.2 million followers on X, is seeking a third five-year term in office. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been using social media ‘warriors’ since long before he took power. BJP remains the most well-resourced and successful of India’s political parties and sets the agenda for its opponents. Many of its social media warriors are allegedly paid, but supporters of all political hues chip in willingly to defend their party on social media.

This phenomenon, not exclusive to India, is explained by the belief that anything seen in writing is more trustworthy. With more Indians able to read and write, written messages are often viewed as more credible than traditional word of mouth.

There has been a change in what is viewed as information or news. A plethora of information sources have cropped up in recent years, weakening the role of official and established sources. In struggling to balance its role as a purveyor of news and opinion, the traditional media, whose ownership is increasingly dominated by major corporations that are considered pro-Modi, has lost credibility. Critics call the media lapdogs for the BJP.

Unsurprisingly, social media, which is under no one’s control and follows no rules of professional ethics, has become a trusted source of information for many Indians. This makes it vulnerable to abuse. Whether its use is good or bad depends on one’s perspective. But the conflicting interests of India’s media ecosystem seldom promote truth.

Mahendra Ved is a Delhi-based journalist and President Emeritus of the Commonwealth Journalists Association.