1. Role of Social Media in General Election in India

2. Media is sometimes referred to as the 4 th pillar of the democracy because its role is to serve as the watchdog. watching over those who we elect to oversee our national and local governments on behalf of those they serve, the citizens. However, some people believe that not all media is objective and, in some cases, show bias in reporting by either not covering something it doesn’t want the public to know or covering something in perhaps much greater detail than might be necessary.

3. Media is a KEY LINKAGE INSTITUTION between the people and policymakers Brings political information to the public on a daily basis -Television, radio, magazines, books, Internet, etc. Media has a profound effect on public policy because most people rely on the information from the media to make their choices in an election So, if the media chooses not to cover something, then most people will never get that information

4. Source: https://www.commonsense.org/our-impact/

6. India TV* and Digital Video** Ad Spending, 2018-2022 (in billions)

7. Sets the public agenda -Most people rely on the media for all or most of their information regarding politics -Whatever the media chooses to talk about is the information that people receive (Agenda Setting) -If the media chooses not to talk about it, then people are generally uninformed about the issue (Agenda Cutting) -If people are uninformed about the issue then it will not be a priority in the legislative arena

8. The 17th Lok Sabha elections in India was unique in many aspects; the one aspect which was noticed by the people about the role of Social Media in the election. Apart from conventional political rallies, door to door campaign, canvassing, bhaashans, processions etc. The new form of interaction and engagement with the voter came into existence in the form of Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Also, Whatsapp-a Facebook owned messaging service emerged as one important communication tool and used by many people in society. Now, political debates are driven by likes, shares, and comments on Social Media. Although, this is not the first time that Social Media used for communication and campaigning purpose, even in the 16th Lok Sabha elections political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Indian National Congress (INC) seek suggestions from the Social Media users for their election manifestoes, but people’s participation was limited. However, this time around it will be more because the internet user base in the country estimated to be 566 million (as of December 2018) according Kantar IMRB Report. In urban areas, it estimated to be 315 million, whereas in rural areas it is 251 million internet users. Overall, there is a (40%) internet penetration in the country. Interestingly, more than (95%) of users access the internet on their mobile phones. The Facebook users in India is the largest in the world with more than 300 million people using it, whereas Twitter users in India about 30 million.

9. No doubt, because due to the emergence of social media, it gives voices to voiceless and fractured common people, which is negligible in the conventional and stereotype media. It also emerges as an important source of news for the people. One main reason to the growth of social media is youth, because they dedicated most of their time to social media; and Political parties are now very well aware of the fact that social media will influence young generation. This time in our country we had 130 million first time voters, out of which over 15 million voters between 18 to 19 years of age. Also, the Political parties through social media got information regarding voters like and dislike; and manipulate them accordingly, especially the Swing Voters, whose views was changed through tailoring information. In this scenario, the political parties and politicians want to use Social Media for communication and campaigning purpose as much as possible to influence voters, which saves their time, resources and more importantly it gives larger audience for interaction.

10. The good example is the success of AAP party in 2013 assembly election. After that slowly many other political parties and politicians started giving importance to Social Media. At present BJP has 10.7 million followers on Twitter, INC has 4.96 million followers and AAP has 4.79 million followers. Similarly, in Facebook BJP has 15.68 million people following, INC has 5.25 million people following and AAP has 3.56 million people following. As far as the politicians are concerned, our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is at the top with 46.36 million followers in the twitter, 14.62 million followers for Arvind Kejriwal and 8.92 million followers for Rahul Gandhi. In the case of Facebook Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has 43.04 million people following, Arvind Kejriwal has 7 million people following and Rahul Gandhi has 2.54 million people following. Globally, it is Ex President of United States of America Barack Obama, the first politician to successfully used social media during his two continuous election campaigns (2008 and 2012) respectively.

11. Fake News and Mis/Dis-Information Apart from the positive part of Social Media in politics especially in the last few years, we are seeing more negative part not only from the people within the country but also outside the country. In the 21st century, the first election in the world where Social Media tools used to interfere in the election process by the outsiders and discussed globally is about 2016 American Presidential election, which shook America’s political landscape. The fake Social Media accounts established posed as United States citizens to influence the election through their posts and images. Even, Facebook admits that Russian Groups Company bought $ 100,000 worth of ads, to spread disinformation and propaganda in a society where social and political divide exists and these advertisements saw by 10 million American people. In this situation, it will be very keenly observed by the experts how much influence do the Social Media platforms have on voter’s opinions, ideas, and analysis in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

12. The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced various measures to curb fake news and mis/dis-information on Social Media platforms. Like, all candidates will have to submit details of their Social Media accounts; and political advertisements on Social Media will require prior certification from Media Certification and Monitoring Committees. Similarly, expenditures on political advertisements on Social media will be included in the expenditure accounts of the parties and candidates. Also, to counter hate speeches and fake news, the Social Media platforms will appoint grievance officers to take action against objectionable content posted on their platforms. Even, according to the news report, Facebook will establish an ‘Operations Centre’ in Delhi, to monitor election fake news content in its platform.

13. It’s good that both ECI and Social Media platforms are taking actions in curbing fake news, hate speeches and mis/dis-information. But, we should remember that it is easier said than done, because of the sheer volume of information that generated and so quickly it spreads, and bad past experiences in Social Media platforms. There will be individuals and groups, who frequently change their names to get more followers in order to spread fake news, hate speeches etc; and try to exploit the social and political division in the society. Also, in India, we don’t have a law which can regulate Social Media, especially Section 126 and other Sections of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951 do not apply. As already mentioned with the increasing internet penetration and Smartphone, the users of Social Media are increasing. However, for most of the users, it’s a very big challenge to differentiate between what is fake (biased, manipulative and tailoring) and real news. In this scenario, the need of the hour is fact check journalism in the mainstream media which is missing in our society at present. Also, more independent individual or organization fact -checker should come forward to help in identifying the fake news. If it is left unchecked then it can undermine democratic processes in our country which is the largest in the world in terms of the electorate( 900 million).

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