[nindalf]

OP - don’t take it personal if this thread is flagged and removed from the front page. Yes, it is interesting and yes it has a fascinating tech angle to it. Especially interesting for me is how easily subverted social media is with the right tech.

But you know who this is indirectly critical of even if he is not mentioned. There are enough devotees of that person on HN that every thread tangentially involving him becomes flagged and removed eventually. This appears to be a chilling effect on the discussion, but moderators are very reluctant to step in. They would much rather there was no discussion of Indian politics at all, given that every conversation becomes so heated.

[dang]

Your comment broke the site guidelines in its own right. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. Note this one:

"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [e-mail] and we'll look at the data."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

[fareesh]

I am not a fan of any of our political parties because they are all crooks.

Having said that, I don't consider The Wire to be a dispassionate source when it involves he who you don't want to name.

I'm not interested in who wins the election because I can count on any government to negatively impact my life by eroding my ability to support myself and my family through taxation, corruption and government ineptitude. Our currency will be devalued with each passing year, and most of our savings will not keep up.

Having further clarified this, I fully expect the current ruling party to engage in technology fuelled surveillance and other privacy related invasions because the megalomania is clear and apparent from their rhetoric and overall positioning.

I also know that they are probably amongst the most popular leaders in the world, enjoying above 75% popularity in the general population. I have zero respect for the competence of the opposition because they lack pragmatism, skill or political instincts to change this. What we have instead is an embarrassing coalition of clowns.

Government will only continue to disappoint, and partisans are part of the problem. I only take seriously issues that are framed in the manner of citizen vs government.

Having qualified all of this - this story is unsurprising and entirely believable.

[intended]

The story is unbelievable- in that this is the way tech is being employed. It’s a combination of the most sinister and banal at the same time.

It’s having an auto complete feature for creating better hate speech.

The politics is one thing the tech is another.

[8note]

Politics is how power is distributed, and technology enables power.

They're intrinsically linked

[unmole]

> enjoying above 75% popularity in the general population.

What is that number based on? Their vote share in the 2019 general elections was ~37%.

[fareesh]

The 37% number is based on political dynamics like the popularity of regional political parties and whether or not the political machinery is contesting in all parts of the country.

If you look at polling organizations that do "approval ratings" type of poll, they have been 50-70% for years. The recent West Bengal incursion is probably a good example, they went from no presence to becoming the primary opposition.

[unmole]

In a country where even exit polls are hilariously inaccurate, I am not going to pay any attention to what approval ratings say.

[DocTomoe]

Could you please explain this apparent Indian in-joke for us in the rest of the world? It would make understanding your concerns easier and would give us an interesting sight of what happens around the world instead of just spreading hush-hush conspiracy theories.

[throwaway_42070]

The BJP, India’s ruling party whose leader is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has an active paid “IT cell” and a coordinated army of trolls. The party also has enthusiastic civilian supporters whom opponents call “Bhakts” or devotees of Modi. These people regularly mobilize to discover and shut down critical commentary anywhere on the Internet.

The commenter is saying that HN is often subjected to these devotees’ campaigns. He is probably right, in my opinion. I am Indian and most of my friends and family are devotees. They often coordinate their outrage on WhatsApp groups. Someone will post links to critical articles and the others will jump on them.

[_kw2l]

Why are people so devoted?

[gigglesupstairs]

Religion. Hindutva - an extremist offshoot of Hinduism in this case.

[gigglesupstairs]

The App in question is used by IT Cell, Internet Army of trolls, of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) with Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, as its leader. What this commenter insinuated is that quite a few of those trolls are active on HN too and they mass flag such, supposedly, Anti-Modi articles and get them removed effectively.

As an Indian, I do feel they are right since I’ve rarely seen such posts on homepage. Even this one, I found in Second Chance.

[oefrha]

I’m not Indian, I’ve never been there and I have like one Indian friend living in India in total, so I have no dog in the fight. But this kind of tribal warfare on HN does irk me, and I do often flag these stories as a result. Your meta comment not contributing much of anything other than slinging mud at the “devotees” faction is a good example of the kind of crap comments commonly seen under these stories, contributing to flagging by non-devotees.

[causi]

Oh yeah. "Indian government" is on my list of "Things HN is particularly tetchy about" that you're better off just not having an opinion of because you're going to get twenty points in the first 15 minutes and then the downvote squad will take you to -4 and flagged within two hours.

[riidom]

Not sure if the site allows, but would be much better to disable the comment section instead, so the news itself can stay.