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Indian consultant companies and content creators are accused of promoting candidates through social media in the US midterm elections.
According to the report of Al Jazeera, these people take money and create fake accounts and share posts and videos in support of their candidate.
They distort the speeches of opposition leaders and misrepresent them and spread false claims against them.
This work is not limited to America only. Indian consultants are also working in elections in Africa, South America, Germany, Australia and neighboring countries.
Voting for midterm elections is to be held in America on November 3.
28 fake accounts found in support of American candidate
Videos were shared from at least 28 accounts on X in support of Haley Stevens in the Democratic Party’s Senate primary in Michigan, USA. These videos were viewed more than 70 lakh times.
According to Al Jazeera, at least 15 of these accounts were posting from India. These accounts were identified by Antibot4Navalny, a group that monitors online disinformation.
Researchers at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub also confirmed the use of Indian accounts and pages in support of Stevens. However, Stevens lost this primary election. He was defeated by Abdul el-Sayed.
Pictured is Haley Stevens speaking to the media at Detroit’s Perfecting Church on Sunday.
Made posts in Kenya’s elections for Rs 600 per day
According to Al Jazeera, 22-year-old content creator Rajan Kumar from Ahmedabad had created 50 posts in support of William Ruto in Kenya’s presidential election in 2022. For this he used to get 7 dollars (about 600 rupees) every day.
Rajan used to distort the speeches of opposition leaders and present them in a wrong manner. He used to create posters with false claims in favor of Ruto and spread things questioning the personal relationships of female leaders to tarnish their image.
He had to make up to 100 posters and videos in a few days. This work was carried out through Telegram group. The posts were shared from other social media pages rather than Ruto’s official account. Ruto won this election and assumed the presidency.
William Ruto won the Kenyan presidential election on 15 August 2022. After the announcement of the results he addressed his supporters.
Hide identity with fake account and VPN
According to Al Jazeera, Indian consultancy companies buy old social media pages, create new accounts or rename and use old pages for election campaigning.
Such posts and videos are shared from these pages, which the official team of the candidate does not want to post from its account.
According to Meta and Google rules, political advertisers have to provide information about their identity and the person or organization paying for the advertisement. Meta also prohibits running accounts with fake identities and buying and selling accounts.
However, Indian consultants told Al Jazeera that VPNs are used to avoid these rules. With this, political advertisements can be delivered to the people of any other country while sitting in India and showing their location.
Money is sent through Hawala and foreign companies
According to Al Jazeera, the money received for these election campaigns is also handled secretly. Some consultants told that through foreign companies, on paper a person is hired for other work, but in reality he is given money for election campaign.
Many consultancy companies also send money through Hawala. In this, instead of banks, money is transferred through agents sitting at different places.
Three consultants told some businessmen of Chandni Chowk, Delhi, the place of such transactions. A consultant told Al Jazeera that he had seen millions of rupees being paid through the unique serial number of the Rs 10 note.
Also working in Germany, Australia and neighboring countries
According to Al Jazeera, apart from America and Africa, Indian political consultants have also been associated with election campaigns in Germany, Australia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Amogh Dhar Sharma, who has written a book on political consultancy, has said that during his research, he got information about Indian companies working in Germany and Australia.
Delhi political consultant Tushar Giri said that the experience of election campaigning in India is now attracting leaders of other countries also. According to him, such campaigns can be run at low cost in India.
Two Indian consultants working in Kenya murdered
Zulfikar Ahmed Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai, two Indian consultants working for Ruto’s election campaign in Kenya, went missing from Nairobi in July 2022. Their bodies were found in October.
There were allegations that a special police unit of Kenya had kidnapped him. In this case, 15 police officers were charged with murder. However, in August 2026, the High Court of Kenya dropped these charges on the demand of the government side.
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