How disinformation plagues India

India, the world’s largest democracy, faces a growing crisis fuelled by the proliferation of disinformation, according to Dr Niranjan Sahoo, senior fellow at the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation.

Dubbed the disinformation capital of the world by a prominent social media analyst, India has seen a staggering rise in fake news, with studies revealing a 214% surge during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–21), Sahoo says in his paper titled “How Disinformation Erodes the World’s Largest Democracy” published in Hitotsubashi University’s Institute for Global Governance Research earlier this year.

Sahoo also mentions a report which indicates that 57% of Indians are exposed to fake news regularly.

He says platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube are frequently exploited to spread doctored videos and divisive content, often inciting communal tensions and hate crimes.

Political actors have weaponized disinformation to deepen societal polarization, targeting vulnerable groups and minorities for electoral gains, Sahoo adds.

India's vast online population – over 800 million active internet users – has exacerbated the issue, he argues. The affordability of smartphones and mobile data has democratized internet access, but this digital explosion has also enabled the “industrial-scale” dissemination of false information, Sahoo says.

While disinformation cuts across political ideologies, right-wing groups, especially those aligned with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), dominate India’s misinformation landscape, he says.

Since 2014, the BJP has heavily invested in IT infrastructure and social media campaigns, fostering a network of influencers who spread divisive narratives, according to him.

Studies reveal a disproportionate impact: BJP-linked accounts overwhelmingly outnumber opposition-linked accounts in spreading fake news, Sahoo notes.

He says themes include anti-Pakistan rhetoric, Islamophobia and misinformation targeting political opponents. This disinformation is not confined to India but also influences the Indian diaspora in Europe and the United States.

The paper mentions that India’s disinformation machinery also extends to global issues, saying that amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, Indian social media users circulated misleading pro-Israel content, rooted in Islamophobia.

Sahoo says while India has held a longstanding stance on a two-state solution, right-wing Hindutva groups have maintained a strong support for Israel and a strong aversion to Palestine. “In short, it is Islamophobia which binds together the Hindu right and Zionists.”

He also notes that during the Covid-19 pandemic, India became a hotspot for disinformation, with a significant portion of fake news targeting the Muslim minority.

The controversy began with the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi in March 2020, which was linked by some analysts to a rise in Covid-19 cases. This event triggered a wave of misinformation, including doctored videos and conspiracy theories circulated via right-wing social media networks and WhatsApp groups, portraying the group as a deliberate vector for the virus, Sahoo says.

Fake narratives depicted Tablighi members intentionally spreading the virus, escalating Islamophobic sentiment, he adds.

According to the paper, hashtags like “CoronaJihad” and “CoronaVillains” maligned the entire Muslim community, inciting communal tensions. Some misinformation also falsely suggested officials were targeting Muslims in quarantine centres, which fuelled distrust and led to violence against healthcare workers in cities like Indore. Fact-checkers debunked many of these claims, highlighting the role of political handles in amplifying the divisive rhetoric.

Disinformation propagated by the right-wing ecosystem in India has fuelled a surge in hate crimes against religious minorities and marginalized groups, Sahoo observes, saying this spread of communal hatred and misinformation has intensified cyberbullying, communal clashes, lynchings and other forms of violence.

An NDTV study revealed a nearly 500% rise in hate speech by high-ranking politicians since 2014, coinciding with the BJP's rise to power.

“Not a day goes by without some senior politician – a member of parliament, minister, MLA or even chief minister – making a hateful comment, be it in the language of bigotry or calling for violence. What has clearly added to this is the unchecked peddling of fake news and misinformation through multiple social media and television channels by right-wing ideologues and their followers,” Sahoo remarks.

He finds a glimmer of hope in the efforts of fact-checking initiatives led by public-spirited individuals and media platforms. This ecosystem includes dedicated television segments, mainstream media ventures like the Times Fact Check initiative by The Times of India, India Today’s Anti-Fake News War Room, and independent platforms such as Alt News, Quint and BoomLive, which played a significant role during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet, these efforts barely scratch the surface of the vast disinformation crisis undermining India’s democracy, he says.

Sahoo notes that the sheer scale of false information, compounded by the country’s linguistic, cultural and political diversity, makes fact-checking a formidable challenge, calling for coordinated action from both the government and society on an unprecedented scale.