Are Indian content creators interfering in US mid-term elections? What report claims
New Delhi: Several Indian content creators and firms have allegedly been involved in attempts to influence. Some have also been accused of promoting political candidates through various platforms.
According to a report published by Al Jazeera, these companies and content creators were allegedly paid to create fake social media accounts and use them to promote candidates in the US through written posts and videos. They also reportedly misrepresented facts and edited speeches by opposition candidates.
15 of 28 accounts supporting US candidate were based in India
The report said 28 social media accounts were found to have supported a candidate in the Democratic Party’s Senate primary in Michigan, US. Of these, 15 accounts reportedly published posts from India. The accounts were identified by Anti-Bot4Navalny, an initiative that monitors online disinformation. Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub also reportedly found that several Indian accounts were involved in supporting the candidate. However, the candidate lost the election to Abdul El-Sayed.
During Kenya’s 2022 presidential election, an Ahmedabad-based content creator reportedly published 50 posts in support of William Ruto. He was allegedly paid around Rs 600 per day. The content creator also reportedly edited speeches by opposition leaders.
Indian political consultants have also reportedly been involved in election campaigns in Australia, Germany, Sri Lanka and Nepal, apart from the US and African countries. The Al Jazeera report said that these account operators either used old social media pages, created new accounts or renamed existing pages to run election campaigns. They shared posts that candidates might not want to publish through their official accounts.
How were Google and Meta’s rules bypassed?
Under Google and Meta’s policies, political advertisers are required to disclose their identities and provide details about the individuals or organisations funding their advertisements. The platforms also have rules against operating accounts under fake identities.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Indian consultants said that such rules were allegedly bypassed using virtual private networks (VPNs). These reportedly enabled them to run political advertisements from India while making it appear that the campaigns were being operated from another country.
The money received through these campaigns was also allegedly transferred through covert channels. Some individuals reportedly used hawala networks to transfer payments.