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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Business

How a Reliance-funded firm boosts BJP’s campaigns on Facebook

Facebook Bharatiya Janata Party Reliance India ECI Narendra Modi TRC Pakistan Rahul Gandhi Jio
Surrogate advertisements promoting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party have flourished on Facebook [File: Stephen Lam/Reuters]

New Delhi, India – In the 2019 parliamentary elections, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded a Hindu ascetic accused of “terrorism”. As soon as the BJP picked Pragya Singh Thakur as its candidate for a seat in the lower house of Parliament, Facebook showed an advertisement that mimicked the style of a news report but carried a false claim in the headline.

The advertisement wrongly proclaimed that Thakur had been “acquitted” of the charge of making available her motorcycle to plant explosives that killed six people in the Muslim-majority Malegaon town in the western state of Maharashtra. It got 300,000 views in a day. Thakur, who is still facing trial, won the election while out on bail for medical treatment.

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