BETWEEN MARCH 17 and March 23,the first week after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll dates for the Lok Sabha elections, a string of advertisers on Facebook and Instagram spent more than ₹85 lakh and placed pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)ads.Separately, BJP and its units in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, together spent 32 lakh during the week.
Of the top 20 advertisers on Facebook and Instagram during March 17-23, seven accounts ran ads favourable to the BJP no other account in the top 20 spenders ran surrogate ads for any other political party - an analysis of Meta's ads library by The Indian Express showed.
The top 20 advertisers cumulatively spent ₹1.38 crore during the week. Apart from those placing surrogate ads for the ruling party, the BJP itself spent more than ₹23 lakh (Number 4 in the top 20 list) to run its promotions; the party's state units in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, ran ads worth over ₹9 lakh.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) was the sixth highest political advertiser having spent more than ₹14 lakh across two pages, and the Congress came in at number 13, spending a little over 5 lakh to run ads from Rahul Gandhi's Facebook page.
Surrogate political advertisers employ a variety of content genres, ranging from memes, cartoon strips, to clips, which are edited at times to convey information that may be misleading.
The top surrogate advertisers made no disclosures on their owners linked to the party they promoted. Calls made to the telephone numbers mentioned on their Facebook pages did not yield a response.
Collectively, these advertisements garnered millions of eyeballs across Meta platforms, and despite some of these advertisements carrying communal undertones, Meta let them pass.
Denne historien er fra March 30, 2024-utgaven av Financial Express Mumbai.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra March 30, 2024-utgaven av Financial Express Mumbai.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Murdoch ally helps Ambani build media empire in India
SOHEE KIM PR SANJAI
Pandya, Dube & Rinku: Can they finish for India at T20 World Cup?
GOING INTO THE 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia Dinesh Karthik was assigned the finisher role and the batting lineup was built accordingly.
Nestle adds sugar to infant milk and cereal, finds report
A NEW REPORT has revealed that Nestle, the world's largest consumer goods and manufacturer of baby formula, is adding sugar to infant milk and cereal products sold in India, and other Asian, and African countries.
India-made Daimler's electric mini truck to hit the road soon
INDIA WILL BE host to German trucking giant Daimler's only electric vehicle plant outside of Europe and Japan when it launches a locally-made electric light cargo truck in FY25.
Samsung eyes ₹10,000 cr from India TV biz this year
SOUTH KOREAN GIANT Samsung is targeting a turnover of ₹10,000 crores for its television business in India this year, driven by growth in sales of its mid to-premium segment models, said Mohandeep Singh, senior VP, consumer electronics business in India.
Microsoft AI Copilot speed boost for coding
WHEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Nikolai Avteniev got his hands on a preview version of Microsoft's Copilot coding assistant in 2021, he quickly saw the potential.
US, China debt pose risks for global public finances: IMF
THE WORLD's TWO great economic rivals, China and the US, will drive much of the increase in global public debt over the next five years, with US spending creating trouble for many other countries by keeping interest rates high, officials at the International Monetary Fund said in a report.
Language models in consumer tech
This move is designed to ensure better user experience & privacy
'Data centres' energy use doubles every four years'
Data centres are significant energy consumers, using about 2% of the world's power and emitting carbon dioxide equivalent to the airline industry.
Vi FPO: Foreign players invest big; about ₹5,400 crore raised
GQG, Fidelity buy almost 40% of the anchor investor portion
