- Meta’s approval of political ads in India that incited violence against Muslims has prompted scrutiny over their conduct.
- The political advertisements were shown during India’s elections.
The tech conglomerate Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, reportedly approved a series of AI-manipulated political advertisements during India’s election, disseminating disinformation and inciting religious violence towards Muslims.
The approved adverts featured known slurs targeting Muslims in India, Hindu supremacist rhetoric, and falsehoods about political leaders. They were submitted midway through the voting process, which started in April and continued in phases until June 1. This election will determine whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will secure a third term in office.
Despite being submitted to Meta’s ad library for scrutiny, these adverts “were created based upon real hate speech and disinformation prevalent in India, underscoring the capacity of social media platforms to amplify existing harmful narratives,” the report stated.
Examples of such adverts include:
“Let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned!”
Another fear mongering advertisement demanded the execution of an opposition leader who the campaigners falsely claimed wanted to “erase Hindus from India.” This was depicted next to a Pakistan flag.
The report’s researchers submitted 22 advertisements in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Kannada to Meta, of which 14 were approved. An additional three were approved after minor adjustments that did not change the overall provocative messaging. Once approved, the researchers immediately removed the ads before they were published.
Although some adverts were rejected for violating Meta’s community standards, the approval of others underscores the platform’s susceptibility to hate speech proliferation, Islamophobia, an anti Muslim rhetoric and political manipulation, raising questions about its effectiveness in curbing disinformation during critical elections.
Maen Hammad, a campaigner at Ekō, accused Meta of profiting from the proliferation of hate speech.
“Supremacists, racists and autocrats know they can use hyper-targeted ads to spread vile hate speech, share images of mosques burning and push violent conspiracy theories – and Meta will gladly take their money, no questions asked,” he said.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, recently described India’s election as “a huge, huge test for us” and said the company had done “months and months and months of preparation in India”.
Hammad said the report’s findings had exposed the inadequacies of these mechanisms. “This election has shown once more that Meta doesn’t have a plan to address the landslide of hate speech and disinformation on its platform during these critical elections,” he said.
During his decade in power, Modi’s government has promoted rampant, vile Islamophobia, violated the human rights of Muslims and pursued a Hindu supremacist agenda. Human rights groups, activists, and critics assert that this has resulted in increased persecution and the systematic oppression of India’s Muslim minority.
Hindu vigilante mobs have lynched suspected cow traders on a mass scale and have targeted small Muslim-owned businesses without any repercussions. Muslims are consistently mistreated in a grotesque manner with many having scarce employment opportunities.
In this election, the BJP has employed anti-Muslim rhetoric and incited fears of attacks on Hindus, who constitute 80% of the population, to secure votes. Furthermore, anti-Muslim hate speech has surged – three quarters of incidents were reported from states ruled by the BJP.
Amidst a rally in Rajasthan, Modi spoke about Muslims as “infiltrators” who “have more children”, though he later denied this was directed at Muslims and said he had “many Muslim friends”.
Notably, last year, S2J News reported an investigation by Human Rights Watch revealing that Meta had been suppressing Palestinian voices.
