Political parties placed as many as 51,810 advertisements on Facebook spending whopping Rs 10.32 crore between February and March this year to promote their policies and achievements ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The major chunk of spending came from the ruling BJP and its followers.
According to the Facebook Ads Library report, the BJP and its followers cornered a bulk of advertisement spend with ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ page continuing to be the top spender with well over 3,726 ads and pumping in more than Rs 2.23 crore (under two categories).
The BJP had about 7194 ads on ‘My First Vote for Modi’ and spent over Rs 1.05 crore. Similarly, the party had 2,288 ads on ‘Nation with Namo’ in two different categories and it spent over Rs 1.19 crore.
The BJP had also about 1,101 ads and spent over Rs 36.2 lakh, while other pages like ‘My First Vote for Modi’ and ‘Nation with NaMo’ also had large spending. “MyGov India had 131 ads and its spent Rs 28 lakh. Talangana For Modi page spent Rs 1 lakh on 15 ads. BJP Arunachal spent over Rs 65,000 on 14 ads.
Compared to this, the Congress page had 410 ads and its ad spending was Rs 5.91 lakh between February and March 30 period, as per the data.
Indian Youth Congress spent Rs 88,145 on 29 ads. Congress leader Deependra Singh Hooda spent Rs 78,000 on 30 ads. Naveen Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal spent Rs 28 lakh on 91 ads. In another page, Patnaik spent Rs 11 lakh on 99 ads. Biju Janata Dal had a spending of Rs 8.56 lakh on 29 ads, Telegu Desam Party (TDP) Rs 1.58 lakh and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Rs 58,355 in the said timeframe.
Indian Political Action Committee has spent Rs 41 lakh on 431 ads. YSR Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSR Congress party spent Rs 1.09 lakh on 171 ads.
Till the previous week (ending March 23), the number of such ads was 41,974, while the total spending was Rs 8.58 crore.
Facebook said these ads were related to politics and issues of national importance. With elections drawing closer, campaigning on social media platform Facebook is also picking up pace with political parties and their supporters spending well over Rs 10 crore on advertisements in February-March this year.
In February, Facebook had said political advertisements on its platform will carry a ‘disclaimer’ offering details about those responsible for running the ad as the social media giant looks to bring transparency into political ads ahead of elections in India.
This was done to give people more information about who is responsible for the ads they see. Over the past few months, social media players like Facebook, Twitter and Google have promised to infuse more transparency into political advertisements on their platform and have since announced a slew of measures as part of election integrity efforts. Realising the importance of social media and its misuse during the elections, the Centre had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country’s electoral process through undesirable means. Political advertisements have to display details of their publishers and funders.
As per Google’s Political Advertising Transparency report, the BJP has spent Rs 1.21 crore on advertising since February, the main Opposition Congress party occupied the sixth spot, spending just Rs 54,100. Andhra Pradesh’s YSR Congress Party emerged as the second largest spender on Google, spending around Rs 1.04 crore.