BJP BJP tops Facebook's political ad spending list, Congress follows ruling dispensation
New Delhi/IBNS: Amid the controversy over Facebook's alleged biases towards hate speeches given by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, a new data has claimed India's ruling outfit led the list of spending on political advertisements on the social networking site over the last 18 months, media reports said.
As per the data, the saffron party, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to, has spent over Rs. 4.61 crore since Feb 2019 on "social issues, elections and politics".
Not just that, the top 10 spends also include four other advertisers which are linked to the BJP.
Among the four, two are community pages, My First Vote for Modi and Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat, and the rest are news and media website Nation With Namo and a page affiliated to BJP leader RK Sinha.
Significantly, the 18-month period, the data of which has been released, covers the 2019 General Elections which saw the return of the BJP to power with an improved tally of seats.
Also Read: We are open, transparent and non-partisan, says Facebook after row over content policy
The BJP in the list is followed by Congress, the main opposition party in the country, which has spent Rs. 1.84 crore in the same period.
The third political party in the list of top 10 happens to be Delhi's ruling outfit Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has spent 69 lakh on Facebook advertisements.
The data was released days after a report by The Wall Street Journal claimed Facebook's senior executive Ankhi Das took the call of "deliberately ignoring" hate speeches by BJP leaders.
Following The Wall Street Journal report, India's Parliamentary Standing Committee, which is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, had summoned Facebook representatives, incurring the wrath of the BJP leaders.
In the meantime, Facebook in a blog post last Friday stated that its platform is "an open, transparent and non-partisan" one where "people can express themselves freely".
Reacting to the report claiming BJP topped the list of political advertisements on Facebook, the saffron party's arch-rival politician and Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian Mahua Moitra took a potshot at the saffron brigade tweeting, "Surprise Surprise!! BJP tops political ad spend on Facebook India You scratch my back I scratch yours..."
Surprise Surprise!!
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) August 27, 2020
BJP tops political ad spend on Facebook India
You scratch my back I scratch yours...https://t.co/HbPOrrMbi0 via @IndianExpress
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