Five years from now, we may well be reading a book about the BJP’s WhatsApp operations in the 2019 elections – featuring two lakh groups of 256 members each, or over 5o million readers of the party line. A recent book, however, tells the story of the 2014 elections, and the role of WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook in the rise of Narendra Modi.
In 2019, if we forget Facebook’s billions of dollars in revenue, we might almost feel sorry for it. Facebook has had a rough year, where it has been attacked both by the Left (for permitting the rise of right-wing troll armies), and the Right (for censorship of conservatives: Donald Trump has launched a new tool to report instances.)