The Government notified The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in which it made it mandatory for Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) to publish monthly compliance reports that contained data on multiple items including grievances & actions taken. Data shows that between March and July of 2023 & 2024, while the number of grievances increased on X (Twitter), the number of accounts suspended reduced significantly.
In the previous story, we analysed the trend in grievances reported to Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs), following the Government of India’s mandate for proactively publishing such data. We also highlighted the limitations in the data reported by these platforms and examined the trends in the volume and types of grievances received by SSMIs during 2023, particularly in the context of the five state elections towards the end of 2023.
In this story, we focus on the trends in the number and types of grievances received by SSMIs, in light of the recently concluded 18th Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Methodology and Notes
- The data used for this analysis is sourced from Dataful’s collection of datasets on grievance and action-taken reports published by SSMIs.
- The five major SSMIs whose data is analysed in this story are Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google, and WhatsApp.
- The 18th Lok Sabha elections took place in April and May 2024, with results announced in June 2024. We analysed the trends in grievances received by SSMIs over a five-month period, from March to July — covering one month before the elections and one month after the results were declared.
- To identify patterns, we compared the grievance trends during these months in 2024 on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis with the previous two years (2022 and 2023), as well as on a monthly basis in 2024.
Number of grievances received by WhatsApp shows steady increase, while 4 other SSMIs show mixed trends
The analysis of the total number of grievances received by SSMIs on both a year-on-year (y-o-y) and monthly basis reveals varied trends.
In the case of Twitter (now X), the y-o-y comparison shows a significant increase in the number of grievances from 2023 to 2024. Between March and July of 2023 vs. 2024, the number of grievances rose from 118 to 5158, 158 to 18562, 518 to 17780, 3340 to 12570, and 2056 to 17116, respectively. In contrast, the number of grievances received in 2022 for the same months was 795, 1480, 1583, 724, and 1253 respectively. This indicates that while grievances significantly increased in 2024, there were mixed trends in 2023 compared to 2022, with only June and July showing an increase in numbers. When compared on a monthly basis in 2024, the number of grievances showed an increased trend from March to April, and June to July, but decreased between April to May, and May to June.
Interestingly, Twitter’s data on account suspensions shows a sharp decline. A comparison of this data between March and July 2023 and the same period in 2024 reveals a significant decrease in suspensions. The suspensions dropped from 8,17,636 to 2,13,862 in March, from 25,53,872 to 1,85,424 in April, from 11,34,071 to 2,30,892 in May, from 5,46,245 to 1,96,044 in June, and from 18,53,887 to 90,911 in July. Despite an increase in the number of grievances during some months of this period, the overall trend shows a reduction in account suspensions.
In the case of Instagram, the number of grievances in 2023, when compared y-o-y with 2022, showed a consistent increase. From March to July of 2022 vs. 2023, the grievances rose from 1150 to 9226, 6246 to 9676, 13869 to 16267, 4676 to 19913, and 1033 to 20146, respectively. In 2024, the number of grievances for the same months was 12084, 12924, 14373, 10410, and 10442 respectively. Compared to 2023, the number of grievances in May, June, and July decreased in 2024, while they increased in March and April. Additionally, in 2024, the number of grievances rose from March to April and April to May but then declined from May to June and June to July. A similar pattern is observed for Facebook, indicating a possible increase during the elections.
However, in the case of Google, the number of grievances decreased each month during March and July of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The number of grievances dropped from 35,406 to 23,170 in March, from 28,739 to 20,961 in April, from 28,301 to 22,552 in May, from 26,078 to 21,120 in June, and from 29,603 to 24,303 in July. In 2022, the number of grievances for the same months was 31699, 23322, 25694, 32717, and 37173, respectively. Compared to 2023, the number of grievances in June and July was fewer in 2022, while they increased from March to May. When analysed monthly for 2024, the number of grievances increased from April to May and June to July but decreased from March to April and May to June.
In contrast to other SSMIs, WhatsApp showed a consistent increase in grievances. The number of grievances in 2022 vs. 2023 rose from 597 to 4720 in March, 844 to 4377 in April, 528 to 3912 in May, 632 to 7893 in June, and 574 to 11067 in July. This upward trend continued in 2024, with the number of grievances further increasing to 12782, 10554, 13367, 26200, and 34650 from March to July. In 2024, the number of grievances only dropped from March to April, while they consistently increased in all other months.
Grievances about Hateful Conduct and Misinformation Show Significant Increase
To analyse the impact of elections on the number of grievances reported to SSMIs, we also explored the types of grievances received by these platforms. As highlighted in our previous story, it is important to note that there is no standardized categorization mandated by the government rules on how SSMIs should classify grievances. Each platform uses its own system to categorize the grievances it receives. The categorization methods used by each SSMI are as follows:
| SSMI Name | Categorization of Grievances followed |
| Twitter (X) | Abuse/Harassment, Ban Evasion, Child Sexual Exploitation, Defamation, Hateful Conduct, Illegal Activities, Impersonation, IP-related Infringement, Misinformation/Synthetic and Manipulated Media, Privacy Infringement, Promoting Suicide or Self-Harm, Sensitive Adult Content, Terrorism/Violent Extremism |
| Instagram & Facebook | Account has been hacked, Bullying or Harassment, Content I appear in that I do not want displayed, Content showing me in nudity/partial nudity or in a sexual act, Fake profile that’s pretending to be me, Inappropriate or Abusive Content, Lost access to a page or group I used to manage, other issue, Request access to personal data |
| Circumvention, Copyright, Counterfeit, Court Order, Defamation, Graphic Sexual Content, Impersonation, Other Legal, Trademark | |
| Account support, Ban appeal, other support, Product support, Safety |
As can be seen, grievance categorization varies across SSMIs. For our analysis, we focused on grievances which could be directly or indirectly related to elections for each SSMI.
For Twitter (X), we chose Defamation, Hateful Conduct, and Misinformation as relevant categories. From 2022 to 2023, Defamation grievances increased from 17 to 23, 11 to 22, 1 to 51, 2 to 41, and 10 to 14 in each month from March to July, respectively. In 2024, these numbers were 2, 64, 94, 25, and 66. Compared to 2023, the number of Defamation grievances decreased in March and June, while they increased in the other months. Although there was an increase each month from 2022 to 2023, only three months in 2024 showed an increase in these grievances. When compared monthly for 2024, these grievances have reduced only from May to June. In contrast, the trends for Hateful Conduct and Misinformation show significant changes.
In the case of Hateful Conduct, grievances decreased every month in 2023 compared to 2022, except in June. In 2022, they were 97, 196, 111, 134, and 303 from March to July, respectively. In 2023, they were 32, 19, 84, 712, and 54. However, in 2024, grievances rose significantly to 412, 3353, 3763, 2196, and 5231, showing a substantial increase from 2023. A similar upward trend is evident for Misinformation grievances.
As far as Instagram and Facebook are considered, the only probable category applicable is fake profiling which is pretending to be me. For Instagram, when compared to 2022, these have decreased in the months of April, May, and June of 2023, while increasing in March, and July. However, compared to 2023, all of these months in 2024 have shown a significant increase. From 1050, 1164, 1094, 936 and 1981, in the months of March to July, respectively, in 2023, they have increased to 5055, 3861, 4547, 3833, and 3346, respectively, in 2024.
Google and WhatsApp do not have specific grievance categories directly related to elections. However, WhatsApp provides monthly data on the total number of accounts banned.
A comparison of WhatsApp account bans from March to July for 2022, 2023, and 2024 reveals that while account bans increased each month in 2023 compared to 2022, they decreased in most months of 2024 when compared to 2023, except for July. In 2022, the number of banned accounts was 23.8, 22.1, 19.1, 16.6, and 18 lakhs from March to July, respectively. In 2023, these numbers rose significantly to 72.2, 66.1, 65, 74.5, and 47.1 lakhs, an increase of 202%, 199%, 240%, 347%, and 161%, respectively. In 2024, the numbers dropped to 61.2, 60.6, 6.6, 71.8, and 79.5 lakhs. Except for July, which saw a rise of 68.6%, the numbers for March to June decreased by 15%, 8%, 89%, and 3%, respectively compared to 2023. This indicates that while the number of grievances for WhatsApp has shown an increase from 2022 to 2023, and 2023 to 204, the number of accounts banned shows a decreasing trend from 2023 to 2024.
To summarise, while Twitter (X) displayed varying trends in the total number of grievances from March to July 2024, there was an increase in grievances related to Hateful Conduct and Misinformation during the same period. Although this phenomenon may not be directly linked to the 18th Lok Sabha elections, its possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. For other SSMIs, the lack of proper categorization makes it difficult to come to definitive inferences about the impact of the elections. Despite WhatsApp’s significant increase in the number of grievances, the lack of proper categorization of grievances makes it difficult to infer if this surge is directly related to the elections.
