The Trump Campaign Computational Propaganda Challenge for the Indian Parliamentary Elections 2019

SREERAM GOPALKRISHNAN
Symbiosis International University, India

Abstract
Digital technology tools like any computerized system have a viral tendency and what awaits the Indian Elections in 2019 is a Trump style sophisticated digital computational propaganda. Such tools are emerging as threats to democracies, especially like India, with a free media and a booming population, connecting to the web through smart hand-held devices, increasingly relying on social media for its news sources. The Indian landscape for digital privacy is also fertile with vast amounts of data being pilfered, hacked and legally accumulated. If carefully designed election propaganda based on fake news and bots is launched on the eve of the 2019 elections who will protect the pillars of Indian democracy? This qualitative study paper with a triangulation of two methods examines the role of computational propaganda in elections and undertakes to find the likelihood of its replication during the Indian general elections in 2019.

Keywords: Indian elections 2019, computational propaganda, social media, data privacy

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Dr. Sreeram Gopalkrishnan is an associate professor at Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India. His interest areas of research are marketing analytics, lobbying, brand management, films, business journalism, and media laws.