Lok Sabha elections 2024: In first week of poll code, surrogate ads on Meta give BJP early start

The top 20 advertisers cumulatively spent Rs 1.38 crore during the week.

Apart from those placing surrogate ads for the ruling party, the BJP itself spent more than Rs 23 lakh (number 4 in the top 20 list) to run its promotions; the party’s state units in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, ran ads worth over Rs 9 lakh.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) was the sixth highest political advertiser having spent more than Rs 14 lakh across two pages, and the Congress came in at number 13, spending a little over Rs 5 lakh to run ads from Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page.

Surrogate political advertisers employ a variety of content genres, ranging from memes, cartoon strips, to clips, which are edited at times to convey information that may be misleading. The top surrogate advertisers made no disclosures on their owners linked to the party they promoted. Calls made to the telephone numbers mentioned on their Facebook pages did not yield a response.

Collectively, these advertisements garnered millions of eyeballs across Meta platforms, and despite some of these advertisements carrying communal undertones, Meta let them pass.

In response to a questionnaire, a Meta spokesperson said surrogate advertisers attempting to circumvent its policies by not disclosing party affiliations are “subject to strict enforcement measures”.

“We are committed to promoting transparency, accountability, and authenticity in advertising, particularly regarding social issues, elections, and politics. We require all advertisers running such ads to complete the authorisation process and include a verified ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer to indicate the entity or person responsible for the ad…  Ads found to be violating will be disapproved during review, and repeated failure to comply will result in penalties against the advertiser,” the spokesperson said.

As has been the case in the last two LS elections, social media  is expected to become a key ground for perception battles. The Indian Express had earlier reported that political parties are experimenting with content generated through artificial intelligence (AI) including image and voice clones as part of their outreach campaign, and have already started deploying some of them on social media platforms.

On YouTube, the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) spent more than Rs 85 lakh during March 17-23 to run ads favourable to the Trinamool. Similarly, a political consulting firm called Populus Empowerment Network Private Limited (PEN) started by V Sabareesan, the son-in-law of DMK leader and current Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, spent close to Rs 28 lakh to run ads in support of the party. The YSRCP and TDP in Andhra Pradesh spent Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, respectively for ads on YouTube.

The content in the surrogate ads that The Indian Express tracked ranged from creating a favourable perception for the ruling BJP’s policies across the Centre and states where it is in power, and targeting Opposition leaders, particularly Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal.

For example, one page called ‘MemeXpress,’ which was the highest spender in terms of running political advertisements on Meta totalling over Rs 28 lakh, ran an ad on Facebook and Instagram targeting users in West Bengal. The ad contained a video of the moment gangster and former politician Ateeq Ahmed was shot dead, along with a clip of Trinamool strongman Shahjahan Sheikh who was recently arrested after being accused in cases of land grab and sexual harassment that surfaced following violent protests in Sandeshkhali island of North 24 Parganas district.

The caption with the ad read: “Bas ek bulldozer chahiye Bengal me… sabhi akdu Shahjahan seedhe ho jayenge (Just need a bulldozer in Bengal to straighten all the stubborn Shahjahan)”. This ad ran for eight days on Facebook between March 8 and 16.

When this was cited in the questionnaire, a Meta spokesperson informed it had taken the ad down.

Similarly, another page called ‘Mudde ki Baat’ which spent more than Rs 20 lakh on political ads, advertised an edited clip of Rahul Gandhi where he can be purportedly heard saying, “Hindutvavadis will have to be driven out of the country”. The ad also contained a Pakistan flag under the video of Gandhi’s speech. This page spent more than Rs 4 lakh on this ad alone.

Other pages in the top 20 advertisers’ list which ran pro-BJP ads without disclosing any links to the party include ‘Sidha Chashma’ (Rs 9.5 lakh), ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ (Rs 9.3 lakh), ‘Tamilakam’ (Rs 8.2 lakh), Political X-Ray (Rs 7.7 lakh) and ‘Bharat Todo Gang’ (Rs 3.5 lakh).

Since 2018, after it was accused of being weaponised for targeting voters in the US, Meta has required that advertisers running ads related to social and political issues disclose their details to the company, with their promotional content being accompanied by a ‘paid for by’ tag under it. The idea is that an ad paid for by a political party or a candidate will have this transparency feature – a purpose which can potentially be defeated by surrogate advertisers who may not always be forthcoming about their affiliation to a party or candidate.

Detailed queries sent to the Election Commission of India, which regulates political advertisements and paid news during elections, remained unanswered until publication.

“If random Facebook pages are placing ads supporting a particular party or candidate without disclosing whether they have any affiliation with them, that can also be misused to circumvent the expenditure limit on campaigning. The Election Commission needs to have some agency monitoring these political ads on social media platforms,” Anil Verma, head of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch, told The Indian Express.