Indian General Elections are about to begin. Everyone is talking about it. Not just in India, but other nations are equally interested in the Indian elections. Everyone is eager to know who’s going to become the next PM of India.
Is Modi going to stay in power or there is a better contestant? You must be confused thinking who you should vote for in 2019 Lok Sabha Election.
But to make you more confused there are 87,000 WhatsApp groups trying to influence voters. You must have already got one of those political campaign calls, that goes like, “Namashkar bhaio or bheno, Mai Arvind Kejriwal bool ra hu.” Now you might also receive a WhatsApp message saying the same.
87,000 WhatsApp groups doing the political campaign?
The first phase of the Indian Lok Sabha election 2019 is going to start from April 11. Every political party is busy attracting votes with their campaigns. Every day, you come across some or other statistic posts saying why the opposition party is not worth it.
Also Read: #Chowkidar Chor Hai: Are Memes Actually Becoming a Part of Indian Political Campaigns?
They are introducing people we already know into their parties. On Friday former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has joined the BJP. And Haryanvi sensation Sapna Choudhry has joined Congress party.
BJP And Congress scandals
People are constantly talking about BJP or Congress, disclosing scandals that occurred during their rule. But some of them might be just the fake ones, meant to spread false information. Sadly, Whatsapp has become the biggest social media platform to share such propaganda.
“Over 87,000 groups trying to influence the voters are currently active on WhatsApp. From fake statistics linked to various government policies to news supporting regional violence, manipulated political news, government scandals, historical tales, propaganda to patriotism and Hindu nationalism. WhatsApp has it all in the election season,” informed social media expert Anoop Mishra.
Also Read: WhatsApp Is Making More Changes To Limit The Share Of Viral Content And Fake News
A single Whatsapp group can have 256 users and reminding you that there are 87,000 groups, that makes a total of 2.2 crores Whatsapp users in the country. The main problem is more than half of the news that has been shared on Whatsapp is fake.
Though, Whatsapp is continuously making changes to stop such outbreaks of fake viral news, political propaganda and pornographic content. Whatsapp has already limited the share to 5 persons at a time. Now, it also gives a forward tag to every message that has been forwarded.
In Conclusion:
Also, you should think before forwarding that religious message that asks you to support some specific party. Social media always has this filter that makes things look good on the internet (or at least to the ones they are influencing).
They are trying to manipulate your decision and you should not let that happen. Try to take the filter off and look around for what is real and what is not.
Don’t believe in everything you read on the social media blindly.
