Hate by Proxy

How shadow accounts on Meta spread BJP propaganda in Jharkhand

- RYAN THOMAS

The Facebook page Jharkhand Chaupal was created on 15 November 2023. It soon appeared on Instagram, too, as well as operating a WhatsApp channel—all three platforms are owned by the company Meta. Jharkhand Chaupal’s posts largely focussed on two things: boosting the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and mocking his political opponents, the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the state’s chief minister, Hemant Soren.

A video posted on 12 December claimed that the DNA of ghamandiya—Modi’s pejorative term, meaning “arrogant,” for the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance—was full of corruption and minority appeasement. Several posts provided updates on the Enforcement Directorate’s raids on leaders of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. As the ED moved to arrest Soren, on 31 January 2024, the page turned its attention from celebrating Modi’s inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya to gloating about the turmoil in the state government. One post depicted Soren as a courtesan, with the accompanying text, “He had come to shut down the brothels but, upon hearing the jingling of the coins, started dancing himself.” Others showed him on a missing-person poster, hiding from the ED in some bushes or speaking to his wife from jail. “Bro promoted corruption like no one ever could,” a recurring post read.