In March, just the month before the official commencement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Facebook saw a massive surrogate ad campaign with over ₹3.7 crore being spent on ads on obscure pages that targeted the opponents of the ruling-Bharatiya Janata Party.
BOOM also found the official page of MyGovIndia - a digital platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology - sponsoring ads to the tune of over ₹1.4 crore to promote the recently held National Creators Award, where the award winners were exclusively pro-BJP influencers.
Overall, political advertisement in India was found to be dominated by the BJP, with over ₹6.2 crore worth of ads being put out in its favour, either through direct or indirect means, in March.
Surrogate Ads Target BJP Opponents With 'Dank Memes'
Peeking into Meta's ad library report for March, BOOM found a massive surrogate ad campaign targeting opponents of the BJP, with posts being sponsored to the tune of ₹3.7 crore. We found 15 such pages that used catchphrases and 'dank' memes to target BJP opponents, and promote the BJP.
One of the pages, MemeXpress, had promoted such ads to the tune of ₹1.1 crore last month.
A month ago, an investigation by BOOM had revealed an interconnected network of these pages, which included MemeXpress, that had spent over ₹2 crore on surrogate ads targeting BJP opponents in a short time since it was set up in November 2023.
The investigation found these pages sponsoring posts containing hate speech, misinformation and propaganda to target the ruling-Bharatiya Janata Party’s political rivals along with minority communities in India.
Furthermore, we had also found a page named "Sonar Bangla - সোনার বাংলা" which targeted West Bengal Chief Minister with two ads that claimed that her party is trying to Islamise West Bengal by letting in Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants and barring Hindu immigrants from coming in. This page was deleted or unpublished last month following BOOM's report on the network of pages linked to the advertiser 'Ulta Chashmaa'.
However, soon after that page went missing, another similarly named page popped up, posting identical content. The page 'Amaar Sonar Bangla - অমর সোনার বাংলা' promoted ads to the tune of ₹50 lakh last month.
The ads in some of these pages also used religious tropes to either attack BJP opponents as being anti-Hindu in Karnataka, or promote the BJP as being good for Muslims in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The page Kannada Sangamam ran ads suggesting the Congress-led state government in Karnataka is oppressing its majority Hindu community. It claimed that since Congress came to power, "Hindus are afraid to come" to Bengaluru, while invoking the recent Rameswaram Cafe blast incident.
We found other ads posted on three other linked pages named 'Amaar Sonar Bangla - অমর সোনার বাংলা' (targeting West Bengal users), 'Malabar Central - മലബാർ സെൻട്രൽ' (targeting Kerala users, and 'Tamilakam - தமிழகம்' (targeting Tamil Nadu users) that claimed that the BJP is a good choice for Muslims in the upcoming general elections.
These ads further claimed that a much larger number of Muslims went to Haj in the BJP-led Gujarat state government, than the three other states having a much larger. View these ads here, here and here. The claims made in these posts were misleading - while we could not find the exact figures of Haj pilgrims from these states from 2020, we referred to the latest provisional list for 2024, and found that Kerala had a much higher number of provisional Haj pilgrims than Gujarat.
We reached out to the advertisers of these pages through the numbers provided in the disclaimers, but were unable to get a response. Some of the numbers appeared to be out of service, while some others were switched-off.
BOOM flagged a number of pages and ads that were found to violate electoral guidelines to Meta, and were informed that they were under review.
Furthermore, a Meta spokesperson told BOOM that all advertisers running such ads re required "to complete the authorization process and include a verified "Paid for by" or “Published by” disclaimer to indicate the entity or person responsible for the ad".
The spokesperson added, "We review all ads per our policies and violating ads are taken down irrespective of who posts them. Advertisers attempting to circumvent our policies are subject to strict enforcement measures."
Regarding ads that infringe electoral guidelines set by Election Commission of India, such as the Model Code of Conduct, the spokesperson informed us that the onus falls on advertisers to comply with local guidelines.
"While we disapprove Ads that are found to be violating, and repeated failure to comply will result in penalties against the advertiser; it is up to the advertiser to comply with any applicable electoral and advertising laws and regulations in the countries they want to run ads in. If we are made aware of an ad that is in violation of a law, we will act quickly to remove it," the spokesperson further highlighted.
Official Pages Are Falling Behind
We also looked into the expenditure on official verified pages by political parties, and found them to be meagre in comparison to what is being spent on the pro-BJP surrogate ads.
Among the political parties, BJP was also the highest spender on its official pages, sponsoring ads to the tune of over ₹1.07 crore on eight of its official pages: BJP Odisha, BJP Andhra Pradesh, BJP Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), BJP Minority Morcha, BJP Sikkim, BJP Telangana, and BJP Madhya Pradesh.
Indian National Congress was the second highest spender on its official pages, with an expenditure of ₹59.6 lakh on ads in March on eight of its official pages: Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress, Indian National Congress - Odisha, Indian National Congress - Madhya Pradesh, Indian National Congress - Meghalaya, Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress, Indian National Congress - Tamil Nadu, and Indian National Congress - Tripura.
Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) came third with ₹48 lakhs worth of ads promoted in three pages - Jagananna Suraksha, Jagane Kavali, and Jagananna ki Thoduga.
This is followed by Trinamool Congress, who pumped in ₹45 lakh on its official Facebook page.
Pro-BJP Narrative Dominates
The highest spending page in India on Meta ads in March was the official page of MyGovIndia, which falls under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. This page sponsored over ₹1.4 crore worth of ads to promote the recently held National Creators Award. The winners at the event were exclusively pro-BJP influencers who had amplified the ruling party's message.
Along with the ₹1.07 crore spent on BJP's verified pages, and the ₹3.7 crore spent on surrogate ads, we found over ₹6.2 crore worth of advertisement on Meta's ad library that promoted the BJP for the upcoming national polls, either direct or indirectly.