An estimated 300 million Indian citizens are at the receiving end of fake, false, half-true, hateful, inflammatory information. This is an immense threat to democracy in the context of the ongoing general elections, the results of which will be declared on May 23. These elections have been described by some as the country’s first ‘WhatsApp elections’ because of the ‘weaponisation’ of social media by primarily the right-wing and the supporters of the ruling dispensation in spreading their agenda.
The authors of the book The Real Face of Facebook in India: How Social Media Have Become a Propaganda Weapon and Disseminator of Disinformation and Falsehood, Cyril Sam and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, found in the course of their investigation that representatives of the digital giant in India have in the past–and continue to–work very closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his supporters and the governments. The authors argue that Facebook and its sister platform, WhatsApp, have not been as agnostic and impartial as they claim they are but have been complicit in promoting Modi as a messiah.
The findings of the investigation have been published in the form of the book published also in Hindi titled Facebook Ka Asli Chehra with a website www.theaslifacebook.com, which would be functioning as a portal aggregating information Facebook and generating awareness about fake news.
Well-known personalities who spoke at the launch of the book at Jawahar Bhavan in New Delhi on April 30 contended that Facebook has helped the disinformation infrastructure in India.
The session began with author Sam commenting on how people have moved beyond the naivete that internet-based communication is a blessing bestowed upon us by “boy geniuses” and we now see how social media platforms globally can be manipulated and how the people behind them have broken laws and endangered democracies. The real story of Facebook in India is about a network of individuals who have manipulated and now control our information flows and information ecosystem.
Sam argued that one needs to face the fact that Facebook and Google have a near monopoly on internet-based communication, and therefore it is important to not just look at what is happening on the platforms, but also how these digital monopolies negotiate local laws and regulations and are used to influence politics and voter preferences in countries.
Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, highlighted how in this constant barrage of information there is quite often a loss of context which are reflected in the decisions taken. It is important to consider Facebook’s involvement in India that has given it the largest number of users in any country. While criticism plays a valuable role, Gupta felt there is need to interrogate ourselves on the reasons why we use Facebook and WhatsApp.
He added that there is lack of strength in public institutions, particularly in India, to control digitial monopolies while at the same time, illustrating how public victories are possible against large conglomerates citing SavetheInternet.org’s movement and the example of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against Facebook’s plan to establish its Free Basics initiative. While we now use our smartphones for comfort, the real problem lies in the in the issues and questions relating to exercise of power between and among individuals and the state which needs to be negotiated by public institutions such as the Election Commission of India, courts of law and the TRAI, to ensure a modicum of privacy safeguards and data protection norms.
Apoorvanand, professor at the Hindi department of the University of Delhi, spoke on how reliance on wrong information leads to wrong decisions. There needs be a critical analysis and interrogation of the type of information that is being spread through WhatsApp and Facebook before and during the elections. For that, one has to first become aware that news that is distributed can be fake and then be cautious and questioning of the purposes behind the spread of such half-truths or falsehood. In the last four years, he observed that many in India have now developed a habit of distribution as a news byte or a meme without much thought about its veracity. Apoorvanad rued why so much of the discourse on social media has shifted to the language of sensationalisation.
Indu Chandrasekhar, managing editor of Tulika Books, stressed on the need to find the interstices of democratic functioning within the current environment by establishing counter-campaigns against the main narrative being propounded. She said that while the use of propaganda as a form of dissemination is not new, social media is now reflective of a blind acceptance of the tools of propaganda. This stems from a fundamental lack of any kind of editorial process of fact-checking which many publishing firms are guilty of. She emphasised on the need for editorial gatekeeping to curb disinformation.
Karuna Nundy, advocate at the Supreme Court, spoke on the problem of Facebook as a “walled garden” when it comes to being a source of news in contrast to Twitter being a more open field for debates. Facebook’s algorithm is driven by our interests and consumption patterns, making it a more secluded space in terms of information flow. The problem of handing the responsibility of content moderation lies in the uninformed private censorship by the platform.
Prabir Purkayastha, founder-editor of NewsClick, spoke on how platforms like Google and Facebook have become the mode of communication for most who use the internet. The advertising model for the media has changed dramatically in recent years. Approximately half of the total advertising revenue in the world is accounted for by three or four large conglomerates. This, in turn, has led to handing over of the responsibility of fact-checking from the editorial departments of media orgnisations to private companies like Facebook which wants posts to go viral, irrespective of the credibility of the content being disseeminated. It is the interest of these private monopolies, and not in the social interest, to manipulate these regulations for their benefit, he asserted.
The event concluded with Rahul Ram, composer and social activist, playing two of his compositions followed by a question and answer session with the audience.