Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Experts give insights into social media's role in politics

The season where political content dominates most people's timelines began with the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 phase 1 on April 19. Hilarious memes and edits using film clips are making rounds of the social media platforms with parties finding 'comedic' ways of taking a dig at each other while the supporters join the bandwagon.

Clips from Sacha Baron Cohen's black comedy film The Dictator or stills from popular Bollywood films like Welcome, Hera Pheri, Gangs of Wasseypur and others are the meme experts' favourites and they don't seem to be dying down sooner.

However, the trend does prompt the thought of whether social media has become a crucial tool for political parties to connect with voters, share their public opinion and influence electoral outcomes.

Undoubtedly, social media trends have a significant role in shaping the online landscape affecting what people see, share and discuss. Many entities, including political parties, do keenly follow this and tailor their outreach strategies which could enable these political parties to increase their visibility and reach diverse audiences.

To understand the same, mid-day spoke to Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon. Sharma Menon says that AAP owes its birth to social media and technology.

"AAP started from a movement called India Against Corruption during the gestation of the social media era in India. When technology became accessible, social media became accessible and popular, that's when IAC was born," said the party leader while responding to a question on how important it is for a party to have a social media presence.

Also Read: Maharashtra's political landscape braces for seismic shift ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2024

Preeti added that for AAP use of social media has been as crucial as any other aspect of the party in terms of building an organisation.

"We had databases, we urged people to give their opinion to IAC through either missed calls, SMS etc. The party was born out of a social media campaign with the IAC collective asking the public if they should form a political party. It was the public response that created AAP. So I think Aam Aadmi Party owes its birth itself to social media and to technology," she quipped.

Utilisation of social media tools

Elucidating on the usage of social media as a tool in politics, she said that although the AAP was one of the frontrunners of the movement, it was the Bharatiya Janata Party that capitalised and weaponised it.

"BJP has vast resources and they utilised every medium--especially WhatsApp groups. They created content for WhatsApp groups that every person could see on their phones. Back in 2014, it was not a reel, a video or even a meme. They learnt to use WhatsApp optimally and that allowed them to connect amazingly well to the people of India," she said.

However, she soon said that in the past few months, the party, despite its small stature, is now neck to neck with them yet again. "We (AAP) are just 10 years old and we are just very young people with very little resources," she opined.

Speaking about how AAP utilises the social media tools, Preeti said that the team being relatively small does not have war rooms like Bharatiya Janata Party or others do. She said, "We are not traditional politicians. We don't have traditional manpower or bank reserves to be able to advertise. If and when we could afford, we would use radio advertisements, but we could never afford television advertisements."

Preeti Sharma Menon opined that the television channels today do not work independently and that to survive Aam Aadmi Party will have to rely on social media, especially YouTube channels.

"It's through YouTube that independent media houses and individuals interested in politics like Akash Banerjee began creating content and their own fanbase. When we realised conventional media would not allow us to air our opinions, we supported YouTube channels. Our leaders did not just back them but also gave interviews, and were regularly involved in their campaigns," she said.

Social media campaigns

When asked about one of the party's popular campaigns, Sharma Menon said that their 'Muffler Man campaign' ahead of the Delhi Elections in 2015 was one of their successful campaigns.

"The muffler man campaign was an idea that came from our volunteers," she said, stating that it was the USP for Arvind Kejriwal as he was being viewed as a man with a muffler tied and broom in hand, ready to take on corruption. She said the campaign was one of the top trends for 25 days straight.

"In our party, uh, the social media in charge works on a day-to-day basis with the national leadership. Everything that happens in the political world today is seen on social media and is responded to on social media. So today we are at a stage where I think that our social media campaign is the strongest in the country."

"Today we are at a stage in the country where social media is the language of politics; there is no other language. Everything is communicated and done through social media, we speak through social media, we react on social media, we reach out on social media," she said while speaking on communication and transparency.

Sharma Menon added that since the party was born out of a people's movement, they did not have to face issues in connecting with the public.

Battling misinformation, disinformation

It should come as no surprise that social media offers political parties many benefits, but it also comes with risks and obstacles. The speed with which false information circulates, bad press, and cyberbullying can jeopardise political parties' attempts to stay upbeat online and interact positively with voters. Furthermore, social media algorithms' echo chamber effect can make it more difficult for parties to expand outside their current fan base.

When asked about it, Preeti Sharma Menon said the party faces a dilemma--to continue with their messaging or to combat misinformation or disinformation about the party.

"The biggest challenge that we face today is countering fake news. The flip side is that a lot of false news is generated about us, our leadership and events that take place. It starts right from the top, we don't know where to counter it," she said and added, "The biggest challenge our social media team faces--continue with our messaging or is it necessary to refute fake messaging?"

Preeti says while there are websites that conduct fact-checking but the party also comes under pressure.

While there are sites like, uh, Alt News and, um, you know, others, Boom and, uh, some others which always keep, uh, debunking social media lies.

While AAP has decided to take a call to stick to their messaging it is a tightrope all political parties are walking on.

Is social media engagement really bringing votes?

While it is understood that social media has become an indispensable part of everyone's lives, it is crucial to see whether it yields as much impact as the political parties and the public believe.

Political strategist and founder of Niti Tantra Ritwik Mehta, in an earlier conversation had told mid-day that more than other social media platforms, WhatsApp has become the most-utilised tool.

"Often, the people have closed groups based on their communities, localities and through tapping into these spaces, do the local leaders gain prominence among the masses," Mehta opined.

However, Tushar Panchal, founder of War Room Strategies, had another perspective to share. Panchal pointed out that social media in the last three to four years lost its relevance in the context of political leaders or political parties connecting with the public.

Elaborating on the same, Panchal told mid-day, "Social media is quite a powerful tool, however, it has lost its relevance. When it first launched in the early 2010s, there was novelty---of people having access to politicians or they felt that politicians would respond."

The political strategist said that politicians would look at something of interest and would share it on their social media. He added that earlier, leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others were once responsive and accessible, however today the public receives an automated response at best.

"The idea of social media being social has gone down to drills and it has become like any other media outlet wherein it's just one-way communication which will be heard or viewed by people interested in it. One cannot convert anybody by posting something on their social media," he said further.

Substantiating the same, he said that the responses under posts made by top parties or politicians like Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi are uniform in the sense that supporters find a way to back them and the non-aligning parties counter every word.
That is how social media has become, he said.

One-way communication not alluring, says Panchal

Speaking in depth about the presence of political parties and politicians, he said that these entities only re-emphasise their message to their people which is very similar to airing an advertisement on television or printing one in the newspaper.

"The effectiveness is zero. Whoever is looking for Congress is going to vote for Congress irrespective of whether you are there on social media," he said and reiterated, "Social media is a tool, it is a game by people who are in the business of social media to create so much of hype around it so that people invest in that."

Panchal further said, "Earlier, there was some engagement, there were people behind social media. Now everything is algorithm-driven, so there is no connection whatsoever. If you, like three weeks of, say Congress for example, on your social media profile, you start seeing all the Congress servers or posts on social media. If you like three, or four posts on BJP sharing, then you will start looking at all the similar posts. It's taken over by machine."

He added that social media makes no difference in electoral outcome unless a person is either really a good leader or someone who is already connected to people and then engages with people on social media. He said that people can communicate whatever they like but whether it is getting converted into a vote or not matters.

The War Room Strategies' founder further said that social media does not change people, it only ignites them responding to a question about how echo chambers within messaging applications like WhatsApp influence an individual.