Digital Media and India’s Changing Electoral Landscape
by Bhaswati Sarkar & Ankita Dutta
Centre for European Studies School of International Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University, 19 October 2025
Rapid strides in information technology have opened up new opportunities to consume and share news, views and ideas. The implication of information technology on the democratic political systems does not need to be established. The use of digital spaces and platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, WhatsApp, have become a defining feature in the way elections are being conducted today. Political parties compete with each other to influence and dominate the online space both to create favourable narratives and discredit competitors. India is no exception. As the access to internet increases, the digital space has established itself as an arena of increased political communication and contest. This blog analyses the impact of digital media on Indian elections and looks at various regulations that New Delhi has adopted to manage the digital space.
India has emerged as thriving digital economy, and by almost every digital indicator – internet access, mobile access, data use and consumption, start-ups, unicorns, and trade-in services – India appears to be a digital power. The Indian government has been actively engaged in the country’s digitalisation. Its flagship programme, Digital India, which is structured around nine key pillars, is aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It involves three main components: creating accessible digital infrastructures, providing services digitally, and promoting digital literacy among citizens. This initiative has been successful in expanding the internet access and improved public services through Digital Public Infrastructure (which is a combination of digital identity, digital payment infrastructure and data exchange solutions). Since the launch of the initiative, internet connections have increased from 251.5 million in March 2014 to 969.6 million in June 2024, registering a growth of 285.53%. Broadband connections rose from 61 million in March 2014 to 949.2 million in August, 2024 growing by 1452%. Moreover, India accounted for 49% of global real-time transaction in 2023, making it the leading country in digital payments.
During elections, the political outreach that the ‘digispace’ provides has been about narrative and image building of political leaders and their party. But this space is also open to misuse by misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. Therefore, effectively regulating this space is an imperative for meaningful conduct of politics in general and elections in particular.
India has strengthened its regulatory framework to manage online platforms overall. The rights and responsibilities of online platforms are regulated by Section 79 of the Information Technology Act of 2000, which places responsibility of due diligence on network service providers to remove or disable access to illegal or false information. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 have sought to further regulate social media platforms. Amendments introduced in April 2023 conferred new powers for the government to exercise censorship and calls on social and media platforms to remove posts deemed fake or false. This is to ensure data privacy, net neutrality, and most importantly, accountability of social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Meta. These frameworks along with the Indian Penal Code and framework of the twin acts, namely the Representation of People Act, 1950 and 1951 forms the core of legal instruments implemented by India in regulating its online space. While the amendments sought to regulate the online space, these provisions have been critcised for curtailing rights of the people, over-censorship, and concerns about creation of an appellate authority which might not be independent of the executive.
With respect to elections, the responsibility of ensuring free and fair polls. rests with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The ECI issues guidelines and advisories related to the use of social media by political parties and candidates. Since 2008, it has made attempts to regulate the digital space. In 2013, the ECI formulated guidelines for social media companies, candidates, political parties and third parties. For instance, disclosure of social media accounts for candidates when filing their nominations was made mandatory. Political parties and candidates were also required to publish their expenditure incurred on social media. Further, at the state and district levels parties’ political advertisements shared across online platforms required prior certification by Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC).
The 2014 parliamentary elections that led BJP leader Modi to power marked a turning point in the use of digital space for party electioneering. PM Modi’s 2014 success has been attributed to his innovative social media outreach. The Financial Times went so far as to call him India’s “first social media prime minister”. A month within becoming the prime minister, PM Modi increased his online popularity on Facebook, becoming the world’s second most popular head of a state after US President Obama. In 2017 a report released by PR firm Burson-Marstellar showed Prime Minister Modi with 40 million Facebook followers on his personal page – the world’s most followed leader. In 2024, he became the most followed global leader on the social media platform X. With over 100 million followers, Prime Minister Modi outperforms Virat Kohli (64.1 million) and Taylor Swift (95.3 million).
While BJP retains its first mover advantage on social media presence, other parties have caught up. Consequently, the digital space needs to be better regulated due to platforms’ ability of polarisation by microtargeting and misinformation. In 2018, ECI set up the Sinha Committee to look into the feasibility of regulating social media advertising during election campaigns and ways to prevent its misuse (No. 491/RPA/2017/Communication). For the 2019 elections, a voluntary code of ethics was signed by ECI and Internet and Mobile Association of India. The social media companies agreed to conduct education and awareness campaigns, and establish a fast-track grievance redress channel to take action on objectionable posts reported to the ECI. They also agreed to pre-certification requirements and to take action within three hours of reported violations of the mandatory 48-hour period of no-campaigning.
On the ground the “voluntary code of ethics” had at best limited impact. During the 2019 elections, millions of fake or misleading posts were uploaded particularly on Facebook, Twitter, Google and WhatsApp, only 909 posts were taken down by the social media platforms and of the 510 code violations just 75 were analysed by the ECI but no penalties were imposed. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was dubbed as “social media elections’” and 2019 was referred to as the “WhatsApp election”, the elections of 2024 can be referred to as dominated by the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The elections of 2024 were conducted in seven phases spread over two months involving over 960 million voters. The Model Code of Conduct kicked in from 16th March 2024. This election stands out for the use of generative A Political parties and candidates used AI extensively to enhance their messaging to a diverse, multilingual electorate. AI was also frequently used for spreading misleading information through use of fake audio, propaganda images, and parodies. While AI was used to scale the messaging, it was used mostly without repercussions and lack of transparency. Of particular concern were the “deep fakes”, which distorted content and spread fake information/misinformation/disinformation. For example, an AI-generated deepfake video surfaced featuring late Member of Parliament H. Vasanthakumar endorsing his son’s Congress candidacy; or AI-generated videos of Prime Minister Modi and other leaders like Mamta Banerjee were also circulated during the campaign cycle.
The ECI issued a circular for the “responsible and ethical use of social media platforms and strict avoidance of any wrongful use by political parties and their representatives.” In its Press Note published on 14 May 2024, the ECI noted that it had received 425 major complaints of which 400 had been addressed. However, the ECI was accused by the opposition parties and civil society groups for failing to act against violation of MCC, related to communal content posted online by political actors for voter appeasement. ECI was also accused of failing to take note of speeches being made on caste, community, or religious lines at the right time, meant that the intended damage was done.
In the coming years, the use of social media in Indian elections is only likely to grow. India requires robust enforcement and monitoring capacity to track political advertising, labeling, disclosure, and limit on microtargeting. As platforms play a critical role in information dissemination and may not fully comply with over-regulation, the government needs to work with these platforms for content-moderation, automation and ad-review to reduce disinformation. While strong regulatory framework with robust and impartial implementation is critical, civil society organisations play an important role both in protecting freedom of expression from government overreach and sensitising people about misinformation. Equally, if not more important, is the commitment of political players themselves to use digital platforms responsibly.