Social media’s election plan: Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp want to bring transparency

She’s Twittersphere’s newest star. Last week, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined Twitter and within 24 hours, racked up 160,000 followers. Of course, Priyanka’s nowhere near Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 45-million-plus followers. But she and former Uttar Pradesh chief Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo who’s another Twitter newcomer, are notching up Twitter followers fast. Mayawati sent out her first tweet last month and now has collected 91,000 followers.

The moves by Priyanka and Mayawati to take to Twitter underline how social media platforms are shaping up to be an even more important battleground for politicians this election than in the 2014 polls. No one knows how many votes are won or lost on Twitter or Facebook, but everyone concedes social media’s increasingly become an influencer. And that’s what is stoking concern among onlookers who worry about social media rules of play in misinformation and downright fake news.

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