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As India Votes, Misinformation Surges on Social Media
Political advertisements and posts contain anti-Muslim hate speech, Hindu nationalist narratives, and misogynistic posts.
Bollywood stars seldom weigh in on politics, so videos showing two celebrities criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and endorsing his main opposition, the Congress party — were bound to go viral. Researchers who track misinformation and hate speech in India say tech companies’ poor enforcement of their own policies has created perfect conditions for harmful content that could distort public opinion, spur violence, and leave millions of voters wondering what to believe. To test how well that video-sharing platform was doing in enforcing its own rules, researchers at the nonprofits Global Witness and Access Now created 48 fake ads in English, Hindi, and Telugu with false voting information or calls for violence.
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