Misinformation and Political Twitter in India

*Promoted by University of Pittsburgh*

In the last decade, India has seen a massive uptake in the adoption, and frequency of technology use by citizens, making social media a primary means of information access for a large part of the Indian citizenry. This talk uses three instances of coordinated online misinformation around the COVID-19, the 2021 farmer protests, and the demise of a movie star to highlight ways in which social media has become a feeder channel for mainstream media in India. I show that in each case, misinformation related to the primary event was crafted to engage alternate targets – including communities, activists, political actors, or celebrities, and that this was done within a larger narrative of belonging and citizenship.