2024 has been a significant year for the spirit of democracy. You lent your voice, your vote, and your power in electing India’s parliament in a nail-biting election in June. It is now time to use your franchise to cast your vote for the upcoming state assembly elections. As numerous states go to the elections this year, remember, your right to vote gives you the right to choose your future. But social media is manipulating your vote by allowing big money to spread disinformation. And they think they can get away with it in countries in the Global South like India.
Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram are allowing trolls and propagandists to spread hatred, division, and lies in our society. Anyone with an agenda can poison the minds of the audience on social media platforms -- and even make money out of it.
Platforms are paying out more than $20 billion (approx. INR 1700 crores) every year to content creators, a chunk of which is funding hate and violence [1].
Platforms are making money by allowing private operators to run shadow advertising campaigns favouring political groups to hijack India’s democracy [2]. Reports show more expenditure on advertising by front organisations - through surrogate political advertising - than official political advertising on social media.
Platforms are caving to pressure and taking down content that is critical of or questions the government; thus threatening the right to free speech [3].
Poorly designed algorithms, which prioritise engagement over factually correct information, allow for large-scale manipulation and incentivise scammers, thieves, and propagandists to manipulate us [4]. All of this is being made much worse with AI [5].
Instead of addressing these problems, platforms are actively backsliding, becoming more opaque, and firing teams that are working on these issues [6].
India and non-Western countries are getting a raw deal.
Platforms have poorer protections for non-Western elections and non-Western users [7]. They are a lot worse at detecting violations in non-English languages such as Hindi and Bengali [8].
Platforms are not affording the same transparency to civil society in India as compared to the West. European Union’s Digital Services Act demands disclosures to researchers, as well as independent risk assessments [9]. In contrast, the Facebook India risk assessment was buried [10].
These platforms are not neutral. They suppress and push content based on paid interests of advertisers, who also harbour vested political interests. These giant private corporations that have the power to control information and its distribution are choosing huge profits over a functioning society.
In Western countries, companies have responded to citizen action and pressure from governments to change their policies. But in India, despite evidence of rampant hate speech, misinformation, and political bias, the companies have taken no action to address this.
We deserve better. Indian democracy is not for sale. We have the right to make informed choices and cannot let companies control our elections.
Sign this petition to the companies demanding that they take action now!
Social Media platforms can do a lot more to protect us than they are currently doing. Therefore, we, the people demand:
Stop paying money to criminal elements who use platforms to spread hatred and misinformation - disclose who you are paying and how much.
Stop breaking India’s electoral laws by allowing political advertising along religious lines, surrogate advertising by political parties and breaking the quiet period on political advertising before election days.
Deploy all transparency measures as in the Western countries to protect Indian users and Indian elections.
Institute limits on posting, commenting, sharing, inviting, messaging, and forwarding to prevent trolls from using the platform for manipulation.
Give users control over what they see online. Stop optimising for user engagement, and instead use metrics that prioritise the quality of the information being shared.
References:
[1] He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award.
[2] Shadow Network Of Pro-BJP Pages Spend Over ₹2 Cr On Meta Ads Since November
[3] DIGIPUB’s statement on YouTube’s suspension of a digital news platform.
[5] How A.I. Tools Could Change India’s Elections - The New York Times
Europe meet cautions against digital information manipulation in India
[7] Big Tech failing to curb fake news in Global South
[8] One Size Fits All Moderation Fails Global South
[9] How the Digital Services Hack enhances transparency online
[10] Facebook Accused of ‘Whitewashing’ Long-Awaited Human Rights Report on India
2024 has been a significant year for the spirit of democracy. You lent your voice, your vote, and your power in electing India’s parliament in a nail-biting election in June. It is now time to use your franchise to cast your vote for the upcoming state assembly elections. As numerous states go to the elections this year, remember, your right to vote gives you the right to choose your future. But social media is manipulating your vote by allowing big money to spread disinformation. And they think they can get away with it in countries in the Global South like India.
Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram are allowing trolls and propagandists to spread hatred, division, and lies in our society. Anyone with an agenda can poison the minds of the audience on social media platforms -- and even make money out of it.
Platforms are paying out more than $20 billion (approx. INR 1700 crores) every year to content creators, a chunk of which is funding hate and violence [1].
Platforms are making money by allowing private operators to run shadow advertising campaigns favouring political groups to hijack India’s democracy [2]. Reports show more expenditure on advertising by front organisations - through surrogate political advertising - than official political advertising on social media.
Platforms are caving to pressure and taking down content that is critical of or questions the government; thus threatening the right to free speech [3].
Poorly designed algorithms, which prioritise engagement over factually correct information, allow for large-scale manipulation and incentivise scammers, thieves, and propagandists to manipulate us [4]. All of this is being made much worse with AI [5].
Instead of addressing these problems, platforms are actively backsliding, becoming more opaque, and firing teams that are working on these issues [6].
India and non-Western countries are getting a raw deal.
Platforms have poorer protections for non-Western elections and non-Western users [7]. They are a lot worse at detecting violations in non-English languages such as Hindi and Bengali [8].
Platforms are not affording the same transparency to civil society in India as compared to the West. European Union’s Digital Services Act demands disclosures to researchers, as well as independent risk assessments [9]. In contrast, the Facebook India risk assessment was buried [10].
These platforms are not neutral. They suppress and push content based on paid interests of advertisers, who also harbour vested political interests. These giant private corporations that have the power to control information and its distribution are choosing huge profits over a functioning society.
In Western countries, companies have responded to citizen action and pressure from governments to change their policies. But in India, despite evidence of rampant hate speech, misinformation, and political bias, the companies have taken no action to address this.
We deserve better. Indian democracy is not for sale. We have the right to make informed choices and cannot let companies control our elections.
Sign this petition to the companies demanding that they take action now!
Social Media platforms can do a lot more to protect us than they are currently doing. Therefore, we, the people demand:
Stop paying money to criminal elements who use platforms to spread hatred and misinformation - disclose who you are paying and how much.
Stop breaking India’s electoral laws by allowing political advertising along religious lines, surrogate advertising by political parties and breaking the quiet period on political advertising before election days.
Deploy all transparency measures as in the Western countries to protect Indian users and Indian elections.
Institute limits on posting, commenting, sharing, inviting, messaging, and forwarding to prevent trolls from using the platform for manipulation.
Give users control over what they see online. Stop optimising for user engagement, and instead use metrics that prioritise the quality of the information being shared.
References:
[1] He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award.
[2] Shadow Network Of Pro-BJP Pages Spend Over ₹2 Cr On Meta Ads Since November
[3] DIGIPUB’s statement on YouTube’s suspension of a digital news platform.
[5] How A.I. Tools Could Change India’s Elections - The New York Times
Europe meet cautions against digital information manipulation in India
[7] Big Tech failing to curb fake news in Global South
[8] One Size Fits All Moderation Fails Global South
[9] How the Digital Services Hack enhances transparency online
[10] Facebook Accused of ‘Whitewashing’ Long-Awaited Human Rights Report on India