The Indian mainstream media is still grappling with the election results of June 4, 2024. You might imagine that they’d have grown up by now but no. The children are still weeping that Daddy may have downgraded himself to daddy. One TV person is bereft that the opposition keeps opposing and won’t allow daddy’s government to “breathe easy”. Another wonders why anyone would call for the resignation of the railway minister after a rather bad train accident in Bengal.
An investigation by Alt News looks at how Meta “allowed” policy violations of its own codes (put in place after the Cambridge Analytica scandal) by proxy pages put up by political parties. Most of these proxy pages supported the BJP and pushed their Islamophobic messages on social media. Meta is the parent company of Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
Often when Meta is investigated, the tables have somehow been turned on investigators by this very powerful corporation. Meta has also denied the content of this investigation by Alt News. It is however worth reading, just to understand the layers that run in social media, without the understanding let alone knowledge of lay people. As in most consumers.
Exclusive: How Meta allowed policy violations by proxy pages running pro-BJP ads
If even a small percentage of this is true, it gives the lie to the on-air weeping by media giants like Smita Prakash of ANI and other right-wing functionaries about how the BJP and the rightwing did not do enough on social media to make sure it won the general election with a massive majority.
The upshot of the success of various social media influencers and sites which highlighted the shortcomings of the last Narendra Modi government is a possible renewed attempt by the new Modi government to double down and get its controversial broadcast bill through. This bill will severely impact all “content creators” which do not get their entire content from the BJP IT cell. One can expect no support from the legacy media when freedom of expression is curtailed. Remember, according to stalwarts of the legacy media, the opposition must not oppose and to demand accountability from elected representatives is unfair.
The fact that the mainstream media did not want to listen to their own boots on the ground underlines just how deep the dependence on propaganda has become. From all accounts, reporters knew, in UP and Rajasthan for instance, that the BJP would not do as well as projected. In spite of this, mainstream TV channels ran exit polls which rammed up the BJP’s chances well above the ground reality. The BJP may have believed this: but why did the media?
Sadly, this malaise is not limited to the Indian media. As evidence mounts of Israel’s brutality against Palestinians, the bulk of the Western media is still unable to call out Israel’s transgressions. Even today, eight months after the Hamas attack which began the bombardment of Palestinian civilians by Israel, big names in the media are unable to fearlessly attribute responsibility to Israel. These names include The New York Times, the Guardian and the BBC, some of the most trusted and respected entities – so far – in the world.
If you look for media reports on allegations of torture by the IDF on Palestinian prisoners, and by some Palestinian armed groups of Israelis, media outlets like Le Monde and Al-Jazeera are most likely to provide the information. It is easier to go to the United Nations websites than to the media.
On which sad note…
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal