Mamal ahongba advertisement rate peeraga BJP bu India da Facebook ki khwaidei chaoba political client oihankhi. Masina party sigi message sing ahongba mamal da meeyam youba ngamhankhi.
*KHANG-HANJABA: Masi gi report asi The Reporters’ Collective ki investigative report Part 3 ni. Originally English ta Part mari thokna publish toubani, TFM na Meeteilon da handokpani, Regional Language readership ki damak.
Kumar Sambhav & Nayantara Ranganathan ani gi report
Facebook ki algorithm na BJP bu atoppa party dagi henna hongna advertisement peekhi. Tha 22 amasung tongan tongnba election 10 analyse touraba matungda masigi result si fangkhi. Election 10 gi manungda election 9, 2019 gi parliamentary election yaona, Facebook na BJP bu ahongba rate ta advertisement atei party dagi mamal hanthana peekhi.
Ahongba mamal fangba pricing si na Facebook ki khwaidei chaoba political client asi peisa yamdabida voter yamna chingsinba ngamkhi. Masina maram oiduna, BJP si election campaign da makhong yaangba party oikhi.
The Reporters’ Collective (TRC), non-profit media organisation amasung ad.watch na research project amagi makhada ‘political advertisements on social media’ haiba topic ama study toukhi. Masigi project asida, Facebook ta yaoba 536,070 political advertisement February 2019 dagi November 2020 faobagi data analyse toukhi. TRC na masigi data singsi Ad Library Application Programming Interface (API), Meta’s ‘transparency’ tool sijinaraga political ads’ data kaya fangkhi.
Average ta, Facebook na BJP, party sigi candidates amasung affiliated organisations lupa 41,844 ($546) charge touraga makhoigi advertisement singsae “one million times” hapkatli. Aduga opposition party Congress, maoigi candidates amasung affiliated organizations singdi Lupa 53,776 ($702) thiraga 29 percent henna number of views facebook ta fang-ee..
TRC amasung ad.watch comapre toubada BJP amadi Congress oihanli, maramdi party anisina political advertisement da khwaidagi chaona peisa thadei. Tha 22 da fangkhiba data gi matung eenna, BJP amasung party affiliates na apunbada lupa 104.1 million ($1.36 million) henna Facebook ta advertisements hapkhi. Congress amadi party affiliates singna lupa 64.4 million ($840,897) thadakhi. Adubu Facebook na Congress tadi awangba rate ta charge toukhi.
Investigation asi gi part 2 da, TRC na utkhi madudi Facebook na karamhaina masing yamlaba ghost and surrogate advertisers yahanlaga BJP bu promote toukhi haina. Promote touraba matungdadi, BJP na party sigi visibility amasung reach yanghankhi. Election matamda, Facebook na opposition party singi surrogate advertisers block toukhi.
“If we include the pricing of surrogate advertisements along with the parties’ official accounts, the deal that the BJP got becomes even sweeter. For all advertisers promoting BJP, Facebook charged an average 39,552 rupees ($517) for one million views for an ad, but for all advertisers promoting Congress, it charged an average 52,150 rupees ($681), nearly 32 percent more”, hairi TRC na.
TRC ki investigation gi findings si Social Media platform mayam Supreme Court na concern oiribadu support tou-ee. Facebook ki policies amasung algorithm si electoral politics amadi democracy da threat oiri.
“Election and voting processes, the very foundation of a democratic government, stand threatened by social media manipulation,” Supreme Court na mamang chahigi July da haikhi. India gi apex court asinasu Facebook (240 million users) ki michang naidae haiba contention reject toukhi. Ningsingba yai madudi, Facebook na Supreme Court ta appeal toukhi – case amada inquiry committee gi mamangda appear toubadagi exempt toubiyo haina. Delhi government na semkhiba inquiry committee adu 2020 gi Delhi riots ka mari leinei. Complaint singda hairi madudi Facebook si amaga amaga nungsinadanaba platform oirae haina.
Supreme Court ki order adu American da thokhiba case amagi points loukhatli madudi US election da Facebook na 2016 presidential election bu influence toukhi haina.
Advantage, BJP
TRC gi findingda hairi madudi ahanba oina data-backed evidence yaona – “Facebook’s pricing algorithms are giving a leg-up to the BJP in election campaigns”.
Facebook ta advertisements happi. Masigi ads singsi political parties natraga moigi surrogate advertisers singna peisa thiraga happani – user mayam gi news feed oina.
Traditional print natraga broadcast media dadi advertisers singna ads happa da predefined rates ta happi. Adubu Facebook parent Meta na “wildly varying prices” charge touduna, advertisements singsi real-time auction of Facebook’s newsfeed and space ta base touraga masagi atoppa platforms dasu happi. Target audience asi advertiser singna define touyi adubu kayarak ads tuna user gi screen da tholaktagae aduga mamal kaya dana haibadudi uba ngamdaba algorithm na define tou-ee, hairi TRC na.
“The algorithm decides the price of an advertisement mainly based on two things: how valuable are the eyeballs of the target audience and how “relevant” is the advertisement content to the target audience. Meta does not, however, reveal precise calculations that go into deciding price for a particular ad”, TRC gi investigation aduna hairi.
TRC gi analysis tugi matung eenna, peisa thadaraga fangliba ads sinduna views fang-ngakee-badu na maram oiraga, BJP da henna kanaba okhi.
The Reporters’ Collective na hangba wahang da Facebook Meta na hai ““We apply our policies uniformly without regard to anyone’s political positions or party affiliations. The decisions around integrity work or content escalations cannot and are not made unilaterally by just one person; rather, they are inclusive of different views from around the company, a process that is critical to making sure we consider, understand and account for both local and global contexts.”
Facebook Meta na ads ki mamal khetnabagi specific question hangbada, respond touraktae. Maoigi full response sida paba yagani (PDF).
Tha ahum chungna touba election 2019 houdringaigi campaign si Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim amadi Andhra Pradesh ta pangthokkhiba election ga amuktada touminakhi. Matam duda Facebook ki algorithm si on an average, BJP amasung party candidates tagi louba peisa lupa 61,584 ($804) ni, advertisement ama 1 million views fungbada. Adubu Congress ti lupa 66,250 ($865) theekhi, chap manaba views masingda.
Haryana election 2019 ga mari leinaba tha ahum gi campaign da, Congress amasung party candidate singna Facebook ta lupa 42,303 ($552) peekhi, on average million amagi views fangnaba. Adubu BJP amadi party candidates singnadi lupa 35,856 ($468) khatta theekhi chap manaba views gi masingda.
Madu gi chahi duda panthokhiba Jharkhand state ki election da, BJP amasung party candidates na lupa 34,905 ($456) per million views gi ads leikhi aduga Congress amadi party candidate singna lupa 51,351 ($671), natraga 47 percent henna theekhi chap mannaba views masingda.
Delhi gi 2020 assembly election campaign da, Congress amasung party candidates na Facebook tagi lupa 39,909 ($521) on average million views fangnaba leikhii. Adubu BJP na leibadi lupa 35,596 ($465) chap mannaba views masing. Election maipakhiba Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tagi di Facebook na charge toukhrisi lupa 64,173 ($838) per million views ni, BJP dagi 80 percent henna.
Aduga Bihar assembly elections 2020 da, BJP theekhiba peisa lupa 37,285 ($487) per million views oikhi. Congress na lupa 45,207 ($590) thadakhi chap mannaba views fangnabagidamakta. Madugi election duda, Janata Dal United dagi Facebook na lupa 66,704 ($871) per million views loukhi. Congress ki regional ally oiriba Rashtriya Janata Dal di advertisement ama paoba hapkhidae.
Adubu Maharashtra election khattada Congress henna hongba deal fangkhi lupa 38,124 ($498) per million views peeraga. BJP lupa 43,482 ($568) three months campaign aduda thadakhi.
Indian election laws gi matung eenna di campaign expenditure of candidates si control touraga election singsi level playing field amada lalthengna-gadabani. Adubu Facebook na BJP amasung candidates pu di soidabida atei party singdei henna meeyam manak youhanli. Masigi BJP da fungliba advantage si unfair oi hairi experts singna aduga sokhanbadi India gi electoral democracy ni.
“Any evidence of significant price distortion in campaign expenses is an appropriate subject for the ECI to investigate and warrants a serious conversation with Mr Nick Clegg (the former deputy Prime Minister of Britain who now serves as the vice president of Global Affairs and Communications at Meta) and other tech giants,” haikhi Mishi Choudhary, technology lawyer and legal director in New York at the Software Freedom Law Centre. “A Model Code of Conduct is only worth anything if it’s enforced impartially irrespective of the ruling party in power,” haikhi mahakna ECI na semba set of rules to regulate election campaigns” ta khut theenduna.
Indian legal history da level playing field puraknaba thou-ong ama yaokhi. 1975 ta, Allahabad high court Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gi Lok Sabha election kakhibadu “void” ni haikhi, maramdi court sina khang-ee Indira Gandhi na kakhibadu mana rostrum ama fanglaba matungdani. Court tuna hai “the rostrum constructed by the state government officials for the Prime Minister helped her address the (election) meeting from a dominating position and hence a corrupt practice,” masi public interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan gi lairik ‘The case that shook India’ dasu yao-ee.
TRC na hangkhiba questions sing ECI na repsond touraktae hanjin hanjin hanglafaobada. BJP gi chief spokesman Anil Baluni and IT and social media head Amit Malviya su paokhum peeraktae.
Kamaina Data fungkhibano aduga analyse toukhibano
Part 2 (https://thefrontiermanipur.com/investigation-facebook-ki-manungda-ghost-advertisers-gi-taibang-amasung-bjp/) da su details yaona haikhrabani. TRC na advertiser gi data, haibadi 536,000 political advertisements Facebook tei fung-ee, February 2019 dagina November 2020 faobagi manungda. Aduga masi data si political heads ki makhada group tou-ee.
“To compare the advertising rates charged by Facebook to BJP and Congress, we calculated the aggregate spend and aggregate views for all advertisements by all advertisers associated with each party for each election. We used these aggregate figures to calculate spend (or cost) per million views for each party”, hairi TRC na.
Ad Library na exact spend or views of an advertisement gi details haidoktae. Ad amamam gi, moina expenditure amasung views figures in the range of 500s peeri. Makhoi sing asi 0-500 teina 999,500-1,000,000 faobani. Masigi average sae TRC na sijinaraga calculate tou-ee. Marak marakta advertisement kharadi, 1 million views fung-ee haina utli, aduga atei atei di 1 million rupees spent tou-ee. TRC na definitive upper range leitaba ads yaohankhidae.
Lemhouriba ad singdudi, Congress amasung party candidates na lupa 52.96 million ($691520) thadaraga 984.8 million views fangkhi. Adubu BJP amadi makhoigi candidate singdi lupa 42.05 million ($549,064) khatta sijinaraga 1.005 billion views fungi. TRC na calculate tourisi the cost per million views ni BJP amasung Congress ki, sigi figure singsae sijinnaraga.
Sumhaina touba analysis ama Ad Library API data, New York University Ad Observatory na access touraga utkhi madudi, hanna gi US president Donald Trump gi campaign si Joe Biden gi campaign dagi henna nemba peisada advertisement hapkhi 2020 US election da.
Laura Edelson, Ad Observatory project ki makokthongba researcher oiriba sina haikhi, “These findings show important disparities in political ad pricing that has serious consequences for the ability of different political parties and candidates to reach voters with their message.” Mahakna haikhi madudi, democratic process ta concern leiriba miosingna sigumba findings da su concern oigadabani, aduga Facebook na tougadabadi masigi platform sina “level playing field for political speech” oigadabani.
But why does Facebook’s algorithm favour BJP? Part 4 of this series will reveal how this secret sauce, designed to keep the users hooked to their newsfeeds, helps India’s ruling party cut competition in the election campaigns.
Kumar Sambhav is a members of The Reporters’ Collective (www.reporters-collective.in) and Nayantara Ranganathan is a researcher with ad.watch (https://ad.watch). This story was originally published in English by Al Jazeera (www.aljazeera.com)