Social media has become a major part of Indian politics. It is seen as the gateway to getting younger people to vote and a way to build up your popularity level. Many Indian politicians seek out various ways to get high recognition on social media website. Some do it the old fashion way by putting their personalities to the forefront and others trick the public into believing they have a bigger following than they actually do.
A new development in the social media world has some politicians in India being accused of buying fake followers. By buying the fake followers, the politicians are simulating a popularity level that they don’t have in order to gain more votes. These thousands of followers who don’t exist are secretly purchased from various websites such as Sibersoft.com and foxfans.com.
Indian politicians like Narendra Modi, who has one of the highest amounts of twitter followers compete to see who can gain the most followers. Interestingly enough, it is reported that out of Narendra Modi2 million twitter followers, 70 percent are fake.
According to Siliconindia.com, “Narendra Modi has recently started Twitter accounts in many other Indian Languages, apart from English. It is reported that the IT cell of BJP has been working to create followers in the regional accounts. A recent study conducted by a new media technology firm, www.nextbigwhat.com states that more than 70percent of the followers of Narendra Modi are ‘Fake’.”
Most of the politicians that purchase fake followers only do it for a couple of reasons, to persuade the voters and to seem popular. They use the fact that young people like to vote for whoever is popular and cool on social media to their advantage. This brings up the question of if politicians should do whatever it takes to get votes or should they mostly rely on their personality and ideas to get them votes.