The Managed Performance of India's Online Public Sphere: Unpacking the Troll Economy
- BerryBeat Team
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
India’s online public sphere is far from an open conversation. Instead, it functions as a carefully managed performance, shaped by a vast network of social media operatives who spread political disinformation and communal fears. This managed environment has profound implications for democracy, public discourse, and social harmony in India.
The Scale and Structure of India’s Troll Economy
The India troll economy operates on an industrial scale. According to a Washington Post investigation, approximately 150,000 social media workers distribute content designed to exploit communal tensions across WhatsApp networks. This is not random trolling but a coordinated effort involving thousands of operatives working under political party directives.
The BJP IT Cell social media operation is the most prominent example. Established during Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister and expanded nationally after 2012, it reportedly coordinates over 1.2 million volunteers. These operatives distribute memes, hashtags, and harassment campaigns simultaneously in 20 Indian languages. Competing political parties such as Congress, AAP, and various regional groups run their own parallel operations, creating a noisy and hostile online environment.
This network relies heavily on coordinated inauthentic behavior India—the use of fake accounts, bots, and troll farms to amplify divisive content. The goal is to manufacture outrage, drown out dissent, and shape public opinion in favor of specific political narratives.
WhatsApp Political Propaganda and Its Reach
WhatsApp, with its encrypted messaging and vast user base, has become a prime platform for political propaganda in India. The WhatsApp political propaganda ecosystem thrives on forwarding chains, misinformation, and fear-mongering messages that spread rapidly through personal networks.
Unlike public social media platforms, WhatsApp’s private groups make it difficult to monitor or counter false information. This has allowed political parties to exploit the platform to influence voters, especially in rural and semi-urban areas where WhatsApp is a primary source of news.
The 2024 World Economic Forum Global Risk Report ranked India highest in the world for misinformation risk for the second year running. This ranking reflects the scale and sophistication of misinformation campaigns, including those run by political parties through WhatsApp and other platforms.
The Commercial Logic Behind Political Disinformation
The infrastructure supporting the India troll economy is sophisticated and commercially driven. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) use algorithms that reward engagement. Content that inflames passions, spreads outrage, or provokes strong emotional reactions tends to perform better.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate documented 266 anti-minority hate speeches by senior BJP leaders livestreamed on major platforms. In a civil society experiment, Meta approved 14 out of 22 test ads containing incitement to violence, while YouTube approved all 48 voter-suppression ads submitted for review. Although none of these ads ran publicly, their approval highlighted how platform algorithms and policies often fail to curb harmful political content.
This dynamic creates a feedback loop: political operatives produce inflammatory content, platforms reward it with visibility, and users engage, further amplifying the message. The result is a toxic online environment where misinformation and hate speech thrive.
The Human Side of the Troll Economy
The people behind the keyboards are rarely powerful politicians or strategists. Many are low-wage workers, often gig-contracted and easily replaceable. For example, in Patna, a high-school dropout named Yajpal Yadav manages two to three hundred social media profiles from a single room. He receives daily targets from agencies based in Delhi and Mumbai.
Former BJP IT Cell social media workers have described their jobs as simple trolling: injecting religious terms into unrelated conversations, attacking critics’ identities, and trending coordinated hashtags on demand. This work is repetitive, exhausting, and often morally challenging, but it provides income for many who have few alternatives.
The India online trolling political parties ecosystem is not limited to one ideology or party. Similar troll factories operate across the political spectrum, producing noise rather than genuine political debate. The ideology behind the content is often secondary to the goal of creating division and distraction.
Political Disinformation India 2025 and Future Risks
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, the risks posed by political disinformation in India remain high. The political disinformation India 2025 landscape will likely see even more sophisticated use of AI-generated content, deepfakes, and automated bots to manipulate public opinion.
Efforts to regulate and counter misinformation face significant challenges. The scale of coordinated inauthentic behavior India requires robust monitoring, transparent platform policies, and digital literacy campaigns to empower users to identify false content.
Civil society organizations, journalists, and researchers must continue documenting and exposing these networks. Public awareness about the BJP IT Cell social media operations and similar efforts by other parties is crucial to building resilience against manipulation.
Building a More Open and Honest Online Public Sphere
The managed performance of India’s online public sphere reveals a troubling reality: much of what appears as spontaneous political debate is carefully orchestrated noise. This noise serves political ends but undermines democratic values and social cohesion.
To build a more open and honest online public sphere, several steps are essential:
Strengthen platform accountability
Platforms must improve content moderation, especially around political ads and hate speech, and be transparent about their policies and enforcement.
Promote digital literacy
Educating users to critically evaluate information and recognize coordinated disinformation campaigns can reduce the impact of false content.
Support independent research
Funding and protecting organizations that investigate political disinformation and troll economies help expose these networks.
Encourage political responsibility
Political parties should be held accountable for the content they promote and the tactics they use online.
