From selfies to slogan: how Instagram is becoming India’s newest political battleground

Ankit Pandey* was rushing to catch a train from Mumbai’s Malad station last month, when a sight halted him in his tracks. From the railway bridge, he could see a group of men offering namaaz (prayers) just outside the railway platform.

Pandey, 22, a worker in the Hindutva outfit Bajrang Dal, was incensed. He shot a 33-second video of the men praying, with his voiceover — “Will a Hindu be allowed to do this?” He added a song, a menacing chorus with pulsating beats, and uploaded it to Instagram through the local account of a leaderless Hindutva outfit called the Sakal Hindu Samaj (SHS).

He tagged four other similar accounts with a combined following of over 3.7 lakh followers. It took him less than 10 minutes to shoot and upload. But overnight, the post blew up.

Tens of thousands shared it and agreed with his outrage. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders latched on, and in 24 hours, Railways authorities had booked three people for ‘trespassing railway property’. Pandey’s post still remains on Instagram — with over 54,000 likes and more than a million views.

Once a hub for vacation photos and aspirational lifestyle content, Instagram in India is now evolving into a space filled with political messaging, ranging from cheeky memes to hate-driven propaganda. Accelerating this shift is parent company Meta’s decision last year to push more political and news content towards users, including content from those they don’t follow. “We may recommend political content from accounts people don’t already follow based on personalised signals. If you want to see more or less political content, you can change your Political Content Control setting at any time,” says a Meta spokesperson.

India is Instagram’s largest market in the world, with around 481 million users. But with the platform becoming the mainstay of India’s political campaigning, there are also concerns. While disinformation through AI-generated content and hate-filled videos continues to flourish, critical voices might be getting silenced.

Such a trend holds immense significance for India. After all, in both neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh — the sites of Gen Z protests which dislodged governments — Instagram emerged as a key source of information for protesters. Apart from posting content that stoked the protests, users in both countries also leveraged it to coordinate among themselves and create safe channels of communication.

Catching Gen Z

In India, the platform has seen a clear uptick in usage. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 2025 Digital News Report captures the scale of this shift: while 55% of Indians preferred YouTube as their news source, 37% now turn to Instagram — the largest rise in news consumption recorded across any platform.

According to Raqib Naik, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Center for the Study Of Organized Hate (CSOH), which tracks hate and disinformation on social media platforms, Instagram’s design and features — its infinite scrolling, the autoplay reels and an algorithm that curates your feed — make the app a perfect fit for political content. “Instagram’s visual grammar lends itself well to messaging that is highly emotive, simplified, and easy to circulate at scale,” he says.

Academic and satirist Maduri Kakoti, known online as ‘Dr. Medusa’, agrees. “Even though it didn’t mean to start off as a politically-influential tool, its very design makes Instagram tailor-made for political messaging and propaganda,” she says.

Political campaign managers have taken note. Talha Rashid, a Delhi-based political consultant and strategist who has worked across party lines for state and central polls, says Instagram is no longer an afterthought for political leaders. “It is now the first platform we think about.”

Established politicians, he adds, are constantly looking at innovative ways to boost their Instagram game. “Earlier, most politicians would just post about their daily routines, the meetings they held, etc. But now they are looking at collaborating with influencers or becoming a part of viral trends on the Internet,” Rashid says.

The campaign mounted by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking a record third-term in power, demonstrates this. Standing out among his media interviews are his conversations with influencers — including one with financial content creator Sharique Samsudheen. The influencer has over 1.63 million subscribers on YouTube — three times more than his following on Instagram. Yet, a short clip of his interview with Vijayan, where the leader talks about going to jail — with AI-generated visuals of a young Vijayan in prison, washing his clothes, taking on the jailer — has 1.4 million views on Instagram, with 73,000 users liking it. The original 41-minute interview on YouTube, meanwhile, has 229,000 views and just over 8,600 likes.

Vijayan’s rivals are also adopting a similar strategy. Jayan G. Nath, digital media campaign head of Twenty20 — an NDA constituent contesting in 19 Assembly constituencies in Kerala — says the party’s social media campaign is primarily Instagram-driven. “Our focus on Instagram is because it is the best platform to influence young voters,” Nath says, adding that short videos, rather than longer videos on YouTube, are “the most consumed” of all content.

Next door, in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s campaign seems to be taking lessons. Stalin’s campaign has launched an Instagram-focused drive, called ‘Vibe with MKS’, where he is seen having informal conversations with influencers, as well as with musicians, while donning casual T-shirts and trousers, ditching his trademark white shirt and veshti. While the ‘Vibe with MKS’ page itself has just over 13,000 followers, a video of Stalin meeting two child influencers — brothers Deva and Jiva — has garnered over 5.4 million views.

Journalist and Tamil YouTuber Rangaraj Pandey, who runs the popular political channel ‘Chanakyaa’, says such an emphasis on Instagram is a result of the State’s demographics — nearly a fifth of Tamil voters belong to Gen Z. “Till 15 years ago, a political campaign would almost entirely be fought on the ground,” Pandey says. “Now, at least 40% of the campaign has shifted to social media platforms. Young voters don’t want to listen to monotonous speeches at rallies. Instead, they will watch a 60-second reel on Instagram encapsulating the essence of that speech.”

Pandey also points to the popularity of actor C. Joseph Vijay and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), as being a major reason behind the DMK’s social media push. TVK has been doubling down on its youth support base — Vijay boasts the party has the country’s “largest social media army” and calls them “virtual warriors” of the party.

To AI or not to AI

Political parties are also increasingly relying on AI, to be able to cater to the endless appetites of social media users.

The Congress’ Tamil Nadu campaign, for instance, has created an AI-generated mascot, a young bespectacled woman named Rakkamma, who looks into the camera and publicises the Congress’ promises with the hashtag ‘Rakkamma Talks’.

In Kerala, an AI-generated viral video shows world leaders, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron sporting traditional Kerala mundus and campaigning for various parties. While ‘Trump’ is canvassing for the BJP, ‘Putin’ is seen backing the Left Front while ‘Macron’ asks for votes to the UDF, walking through busy Kerala streets.

In West Bengal, both the ruling Trinamool Congress and its principal rival, the BJP, have used AI to create videos depicting each other’s leaders as the legendary Sholay character ‘Gabbar’, or, in one meme, more villainous than him.

Yet, not all of it is humorous. In February, the X (formerly Twitter) account of BJP’s Assam unit posted an AI-generated video showing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shooting at two Muslim men with the caption ‘No mercy’. The video was pulled down after widespread condemnation.

Last month, the Kerala Police filed an FIR against X and a user for uploading an AI-generated video featuring Modi and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Nath, the Twenty20 strategist, says they are steering clear of AI content. “We avoid AI-based content not only to ensure that we do not fall foul of regulatory mechanisms, but also to prevent a situation where the party’s credibility could be at stake,” he says.

Threat vs. opportunity

Creators, in hushed tones, talk about how the rise in political content has opened the floodgates for money to flow into their pages, no matter what their following.

While bigger names often get lucrative government contracts and advertisements, a Mumbai-based administrator of a popular meme page says political parties prefer working with micro-influencers having less than 100,000 followers. “Parties enlist such influencers to create memes around their rivals,” the admin says. “This content is never openly partisan, it’s often funny and entertaining, and works very well on Instagram.”

Beyond such shadow wars that parties fight on Instagram, other creators — known for their critical takes on public issues — say that more political content on Instagram can be both a threat and an opportunity.

For journalist Varavanai Senthil, who runs the popular Tamil satirical YouTube channel ‘The Onion Roast’, creating content has meant working on detailed scripts that weave fact and satire together or feature political discussions in videos that often go beyond 20 minutes in length.

He has over 143,000 subscribers on YouTube, but he admits that “politically-interested users” are moving to Instagram. There, he is forced to compete with those who are able to deliver political memes in less than 30 seconds.

“People want to consume more information in less time — like on a Metro journey or a short coffee break,” says Senthil. “For politically inclined individuals, Instagram serves as a quick way to relax at work… Its ability to deliver political content in 30 to 60 seconds is the key factor.”

Yet, he remains optimistic that most voters will continue to rely on longer YouTube videos that offer more than entertainment. “I firmly believe there will always be a place — and a strong future — for long-form videos,” he says, offering an illustration. “Ravana abducted Rama’s wife Sita, Rama fought a war, killed him, and rescued Sita — this can be summarised in a reel. But that is not the full Ramayana.”

Kakoti, the satirist, has learnt to adjust to these short attention spans. In February, when Youth Congress workers were arrested for protesting at the International AI Summit in Delhi, Kakoti protested with a zippy video, while she got ready for work. Previously, she would roleplay a news reader at a fictitious channel named ‘Dukhdarshan’ and read out news with a satirical twist.

Kakoti’s Instagram audience has been growing, even as her X base is plateauing, she says. “One of the most important things that Instagram does is that it caters to everyone’s confirmation bias,” she says. “The algorithm is designed in a way that if you once seek a particular type of video, you will be shown more and more of that.”

What this also means, however, is that the platform becomes an easy place to peddle misinformation and disinformation.

Kakoti says influencers, especially those patronised by power, are increasingly able to produce short-form content targeting rival political parties. “They create these catchy, glamorous videos since Instagram gives you the tools to do so, from music to editing options,” she adds.

Rashid, the political consultant, says Instagram’s short-form format is a double-edged sword. “Short-form videos cherry-pick facts and are often out-of-context, enabling them to easily seed false information,” he says. Trigger-happy users end up sharing such videos, amplifying the falsehood.

Rahul Batra, ex-digital strategist at Google, who now works as a consultant on issues of technology and geopolitics, says companies such as Meta and Google are refusing to take responsibility for the content circulated on their platforms “like they did till 10 years ago”. “Basically, they have realised that this beast cannot be controlled centrally. Which is why they have decentralised content moderation,” he says, referring to the platforms increasingly toeing the government line.

Will views translate to votes?

Multiple instances illustrate Instagram’s experience with governmental control. In February, independent media house The Wire saw its Instagram account blocked for two hours after it posted a satirical video cartoon critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last week, a reel by stand-up comic Pulkit Mani, mimicking Modi’s meetings with foreign leaders, was taken down by Instagram on government orders, after it garnered over 16 million views.

Kakoti faced an FIR last year for her social media post criticising the media and the government’s response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack. Her DMs, both on Instagram and X, regularly see trolling, abuse, and even violent threats directed at her.

Batra, the ex-Google strategist, links such increasing censorship to the Gen Z protests that have taken place across the world. “Instagram has led to not just populist political campaigning but also populist uprisings,” he says. “Which is why, the same governments that were enjoying the social media phenomenon are now increasingly clamping down on it.”

Naik, from CSOH, says “structural factors” inhabit Meta’s enforcement of its own guidelines. “Content moderation at scale requires deep local language capacity, and in the Indian context, investment in trained reviewers and culturally informed systems remains far below what is needed.”

A Meta spokesperson says it has “strict policies” against violent or graphic content that it enforces “impartially”. Meta also confirms that it has acted against content by restricting access to it in India “upon receipt of a valid legal order”.

Such censorship and control over political messaging on the platform are unlikely to go unnoticed among voters.

Pandey, the YouTuber from Chennai, says voters look at short-form political content as “entertainment”. “Most of the social media viewers see this as entertainment. Instead of watching a TV show, they’d rather watch short political reels and memes,” he says, adding a cautionary note. “But more views don’t mean more votes.”

An Amity University research paper last year, studying political engagement in Gen Z audiences across three South Indian cities, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, found just this. While 72% of Gen Z respondents regularly consume political content on Instagram, less than a fourth of them are actually motivated to engage in political participation, i.e. any action that can influence political systems and institutions.

Rashid, the campaign strategist, agrees. “No matter how glitzy a candidate or party’s social media strategy is, the thumb rule is simple: if you are not on the ground, you won’t get the votes.”

Voters such as Abish Puthussery, a young IT professional in Kochi, concur. Puthussery remains glued to his phone, with his main source of political news being Instagram. With the campaign season ongoing, political reels have “flooded” his feed.

Yet, he says, the virality of these reels won’t shape electoral fortunes. “Viral Insta reels are not an indicator of the support base of a political front,” he says. “Voters here think long and hard before casting their votes. That’s how it works in Kerala.”

(*Name changed on request)

With inputs from S.R. Praveen.

Kunal Purohit is a Mumbai-based independent journalist and the author of H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars.