Online disinformation in the run-up to the Indian 2019 election

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the role of disinformation in the Indian general election of 2019. The findings are presented against the background of previous work on the role of digital media in Indian politics. The essay uses 25 in-depth interviews among ordinary Indians to probe their level of awareness about so-called ‘fake news’. It also examines their behavior in seeking news and sharing political information and their views about the digital campaign strategies of leaders and parties. The interviewees were concerned about the increasing role of religious extremism online. Yet they were also strongly aware of the role of disinformation campaigns and had strategies for working around being misled by information shared on social media. The essay concludes by assessing how disinformation and online extremism are likely to have affected the 2019 election, and makes comparisons with Modi's election in 2014 and with other leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Disinformation
• fake news
• social media
• Indian election

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anupam Das

Anupam Das is Associate Professor in Humanities and Liberal Arts in Management at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, India. His research interests include Computer-Mediated Communication, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, and Pedagogy of Communication. He has published in various international journals which include Language & Communication and International Journal of Designs for Learning. He earned his PhD in Linguistics with a minor in Information Science from Indiana University Bloomington, USA.

Ralph Schroeder

Ralph Schroeder is Professor in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also the director of its MSc programme in Social Science of the Internet. His publications include ‘Social Theory after the Internet: Media, Technology and Globalization’ (UCL Press, 2018) ‘Knowledge Machines: Digital Transformations of the Sciences and Humanities’ (MIT Press, 2015, co-authored with Eric T. Meyer), ‘An Age of Limits: Social Theory for the Twenty-First Century’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), ‘Being There Together: Social Interaction in Virtual Environments’ (Oxford University Press, 2010) and ‘Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change’ (Stanford University Press, 2007). His current research interests include digital media and right-wing populism, and the social Implications of big data.