Inside India newsletter: Meta's clout in the world's largest democracy is surging — inviting scrutiny

Inside India newsletter: Meta's clout in the world's largest democracy is surging — inviting scrutiny

The recent Gen Z student protest in India has cast a spotlight on Instagram’s growing influence in the country’s politics.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted his first selfie video on the platform last Thursday, raking in nearly 400 million views, in a bid to reach out to Gen Zs.

The number of daily active users on Instagram jumped 16% year-on-year to 531 million between July 18 and July 26, as per Sensor Tower data.

Meta has emerged as the most influential social media company in the world’s largest democracy with a large user base across WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

The success of Gen Z protests in India has handed a surprise victory to Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, cementing its position as the most influential social media company in the world's largest democracy.

But with great power comes greater government scrutiny.

This week I explore how Meta's growing clout could be a double-edged sword for the company.

The Gen Z protests that rocked India last week and forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to act on its demands have marked the rise of two new political influencers in the world's largest democracy.

One is the Cockroach Janta Party , a viral, social media-led youth movement that organized the protests.

The second is Mark Zuckerberg's short-form video app Instagram, which was widely used by protesters to raise their concerns with the government and to record clashes with authorities.

The appeal of the app among youth became even more evident when Modi made his first selfie-style Instagram video on July 23, in a bid to reach out to Gen Zs.

It raked in a record 300 million-plus views within 24 hours and is nearing 400 million now .

Modi has since made more videos and even directed his ministers to build their presence on Instagram.

As per data from digital intelligence provider Sensor Tower, Meta's WhatsApp had an average of 837 million daily active users in India, Instagram 501 million and Facebook 362 million so far this year.

On the other hand, Google's YouTube had 646 million, and Elon Musk's X had 15 million, making Meta the dominant social media company in India.

But this growing influence of Meta also exposes it to greater government scrutiny around content moderation, competition, privacy, and digital payments, experts said, adding the U.S. social media company faces similar probes in Europe and America.

The Indian government earlier this month issued a stern warning to Instagram to remove child abuse ads on its platform that followed a warning to WhatsApp over the rollout of a username feature.

Local media also reported Tuesday that the information technology ministry had summoned Meta's global policy heads over concerns about its " non-compliance with the Information Technology Rules , and the preval...