Three right-wing Facebook pages with a combined follower count over 2 million amplified misleading content about cases of sexual violence in India, as well as posting about other divisive issues in what appeared to be an attempt to stir inter-religious conflict, particular against the country’s Muslim minority.

On several occasions, the pages posted identical content within minutes of one another. This behavior suggested a degree of coordination. The pages’ amplification primarily targeting India’s Muslim minority risks exacerbating ongoing tensions, which are running high amidst enduring nationwide protests against the government’s introduction of a controversial law that ties citizenship to religious faith.

Adding fuel to the fire, sectarian violence broke out in Delhi between February 24 and 27, with 53 dead and hundreds injured. India has a high incidence of sexual violence overall, and rape and assault cases periodically trigger sectarian violence, particularly in rural areas, but in large cities as well. At the same time, interest groups use popular social media platforms to weave a communal narrative around incidents of sexual violence run the risk of sparking a series of reprisal attacks and an escalating cycle of violence.

The views streamlined by the pages were consistent with Hindutva, an extremist political ideology associated with the right-wing movement in India, including with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hindutva seeks to overturn the secular character of the Indian state and constitution in favor of a Hindu religious-nationalist state.

Similar behavior

Two of the pages posting identical content, Hindu Adhiveshan (“Hindu Conference”) and Hindu Janajagruti Samithi-Hindi (“Hindu Consciousness Committee”), presented themselves as the social media arms of a nongovernmental organization called Hindu Jagruti. The organization’s website stated that its mission was to work toward the establishment of a Hindu nation.

A third page, Forum for Hindu Awakening, was related to a U.S.-registered organization of the same name with a stated mission of providing education on the “unique spiritual science behind Hinduism.”