Qatar state media Al Jazeera has started a series of reports where they have alleged that social media giants like Facebook and prominent corporate houses like Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio are helping Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win the elections. In its first report published on March 14, Aj Jazeera alleged that Reliance Jio, in which Facebook is an investor, used its subsidiary named NEWJ to promote reports in favour of BJP on Facebook.
NEWJ, a news portal launched by one Shalabh Upadhyay and his sister Deeksha in 2018, was taken over by Reliance Industrial Investment and Holdings Limited (RIIHL). NEWJ transferred 75% of the equity to RIIHL and got $1.1 million as investment from Reliance. In 2020, Reliance invested another $1.63 million into the company.
Al Jazeera alleged that NEWJ used the money invested by Reliance in promoting reports that favoured BJP. It published multiple screenshots in the report that were aimed at allegedly downgrading the reputation of the opposition parties and leaders.
The media house alleged that the Election Commission of India and Facebook decided not to look at the loopholes used by NEWJ to promote BJP. They said in the 2013 notification, ECI had made it compulsory for the political parties to get their social media ads pre-certified from the commission, however, no such regulations are in place for the third-party advertisers with no link to political parties. It was alleged that the lack of regulations left a loophole for the political parties, especially BJP and its allies, to use these platforms during elections.
The highly problematic writers behind the report
First of all, let’s talk about the writers who penned the report on Al Jazeera. Nayantara Ranganathan, one of the writers, is a researcher at ad.watch, a portal that claims to expose how the world is exposed to political ads and their impact on different age groups. While the idea behind the ad.watch is appreciable, there are a lot of red flags in the reports where its researchers are involved.
First of all, when we looked at India’s page on the ad.watch’s website, we found it was using a distorted map of India with many regions missing from the map. A large portion of union territory of Ladakh which is illegally under occupation of Pakistan and China is not included in the map. Notably, neighbouring countries Pakistan and China have claimed these regions as their own on several occasions that were strongly rebutted by the Government of India.
The second writer, Kumar Sambhav, is a member of The Reporters Collective, a media house that has contributed extensively to anti-BJP and anti-Modi reports.
Selective data to defame Reliance and BJP
During our research, we noticed that the researchers used selective data to prove their points. They tried to show that BJP was the only party that has been using social media platforms for advertising, and other parties or their allies are not doing anything to promote leaders and parties of their choice.
Let’s use the data available at the ad.watch to prove how biased the writers are towards BJP. We checked the ads between May 6, 2017, and January 31, 2020. This is the maximum range available on the ad.watch for the political parties ads in India. Interestingly, it showed Indian National Congress (INC) placed 3,744 ads on social media whereas BJP placed 2,808 ads. That means BJP invested in 35% lesser ads compared to Congress.
The reach of BJP was better compared to Congress which could be because people like BJP over Congress, as can be seen in the number of elections since 2014 where Congress has been reduced to irrelevance.
No mention of surrogate advertisers for Congress or other parties
Surrogate advertising is a system used by brands to promote their product under the disguise of another product. For example, in India, it is not allowed to promote alcohol or tobacco products. The brands use other products to promote the brand name and make it popular among the masses. Best examples could be elaichi when main product of brand is gutkha, or for soda and when main product is alcohol.
In the case of political parties, surrogate advertisers would be the companies that do not have a direct link to any political party but promote reports that either promote the political party or defame the opposition party or leader. Here, NEWJ is accused of doing such advertising for BJP. Interestingly, the researchers used selective data to prove their point and conveniently ignored media houses that promoted reports that either defame BJP or promote the opposition parties.
Media houses and their anti-BJP ads
During our research, we found multiple media houses promoting anti-Modi, anti-RSS, anti-BJP and similar ads across platforms. We noticed such ads being promoted, especially during the elections. As they were aimed to spread anger towards BJP, they easily fall under the same category NEWJ falls as per Aj Jazeera.
“Those who have glass walls…” – the proverb fits on Al Jazeera
OpIndia research found that Al Jazeera itself had promoted content against PM Modi-led government and BJP. The screenshot below shows the details of the ad by Al Jazeera accusing the BJP of poor Covid-19 management. The video promoted by the media house included an interview of so-called activist Arundhati Roy, who is known for spreading misinformation and hate against Hindus. In her interview with Al Jazeera, Roy alleged Hate and Sectarianism were being promoted, and the lockdown was used for the same.
The top five regions where the ad was run were Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Delhi. All these regions either had a maximum influx of migrant labours or were home states of the migrant labours. The ad was running on March 2, 2021, i.e. during the second wave of Covid. By that time, Uttar Pradesh, the largest state population-wise, had already entered the election mood that was scheduled for early 2022.
Further, the migrant crisis took place in April-May 2020, a full year prior to above video. This was around second wave when the Delta variant was creating havoc in these above states mostly. Holier than thou, anyone?
The Wire and its anti-Modi promotion during Lok Sabha elections
From time to time, The Wire has promoted posts that were anti-BJP. During the Lok Sabha elections, they promoted a video where they targeted BJP for the donations it had received via electoral bonds. The figures in the video were not verifiable.
Another set of The Wire’s posts were promoted between May 17, 2019, and May 19, 2019, the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections. These posts promoted Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee. In the interview of Rahul Gandhi promoted in the ad, he had said people did not prefer the BJP.
But anti-Modi ads are pious and uphold democracy, it seems because Al Jazeera does not think it is important to show this side of media bias.
The case of Newsclick
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Newsclick promoted a video accusing PM Modi-led government of India of mismanagement. It made a point that India, USA and Brazil, countries led by populist leaders, could not manage the pandemic properly. The ad ran in June and July 2020, just before the Bihar Assembly elections.
As usual, another anti-Modi ad religiously ignored by Al Jazeera.
The case of Maktoob Media, a pro-Islamic website which often spreads fake news
Another known anti-BJP, pro-Islamist portal, Maktoob, also promoted a series of ads against BJP and in favour of Congress during the Lok Sabha elections. Some of the screenshots can be seen below.
Maktoob media had portrayed Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate contesting from Wayanad. He was also contesting from Amethi, his family bastion, which he eventually lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani.
Another ad just ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections was about Md Akhlaq, who died in 2015 after scuffle. Gautam Buddh Nagar was going to polls the day the ad was published.
NEWJ promoted non-BJP content that Al Jazeera’s researchers missed
NEWJ promoted all sorts of reports and not only pro-BJP content. For example, during the Lok Sabha elections 2019, they promoted a video of Rahul Gandhi where he had requested a woman not to call him sir. The ad had got over 500,000 impressions.
During the same elections, they also promoted a video of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi having a light-hearted moment. The ad had received over 80,000 impressions.
Just recently, they had promoted a video of AIMIM chief Assadudin Owaisi targeting Pakistan for poking its nose in the Hijab controversy.
Interestingly, some posts promoted by NEWJ were targeted for its inability to fulfil promises. For example, in 2019, it promoted a video showing how the mission to clean the Ganga river was lagging behind.
Founder and CEO of NEWJ, Shalabh Upadhyay, also pointed out the fact that they promote posts of all political parties and leaders. Responding to Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, he said, “Dear Mallikarjun Kharge, sir, we are an independent news organisation. NEWJ covers all stories relevant to our Indian viewers.” He added several screenshots of stories that Al Jazeera did not include in its reports.
Dear @Kharge sir, we are an independent news organisation – @NEWJplus covers all stories relevant to our Indian viewers. Here are some additional stories that Al Jazeera conveniently forgot to include in their reporting. https://t.co/gOQ5TK6ehO pic.twitter.com/TqpjEP1geO
— Shalabh Upadhyay (@ShalabhUpadhyay) March 15, 2022
Sonia Gandhi’s statement in Lok Sabha and the hypocrisy
On March 16, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi pointed out in Lok Sabha that the social media platforms have systematic interference in the election process. Legitimising the reports by Al Jazeera, she said, “I urge the government to put an end to the systematic interference and influence of Facebook and other social media giants in the electoral politics of the world’s largest democracy. This is beyond partisan politics.”
Not to forget, Congress had launched a campaign to hire over 5 lakh individuals as ‘social media warriors’ in 2021. That included 50,000 office bearers to lead the rest of the ‘trolls’. It was obvious the 50,000 office bearers were to be paid, but it is still unclear if the rest of the trolls hired by Congress were paid or not.
Congress has used foreign media and agencies to malign the central government on multiple occasions. Earlier, it had cited an unsubstantiated report published in The New York Times, which claimed that the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear worth $2 billion of Pegasus spyware was a centrepiece of PM Modi’s visit to Israel in 2017. It accused the government of “hijacking democracy”. The party alleged the central government had bought the spyware as a part of a $2-billion deal in 2017.
It is also worth mentioning that one of the significant revelations made in the toolkit that was in circulation on social media in May 2021 and was allegedly linked to the Congress party called for the use of the international media and ‘friendly’ journalists to propagate anti-Modi propaganda. The document instructed the supporters to rope in the international media to criticise and amplify the perceived COVID-19 mismanagement by the Modi government.
Media houses choose posts that would please the audience
Every media house and agency has a different set of audiences. At the end of it, media houses are also business houses and it will make business sense for the owners to put money in advertising for product the audience might actually like. If a publication knows the audience base will not like Congress related news or news on Rahul Gandhi, it will make little sense to put money on a bad product.
