Social Media, Political Communication and Electoral Democracy in India: A Secondary-Source Analysis
Abstract
The growth of social media has changed the face of political communications and electoral democracy in India by providing new avenues for political messages, reaching voters, mobilisation and citizen participation. The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was a significant moment in the social media phenomenon of electoral campaigning, especially regarding the communication between the political parties and the candidates via the social media space of Twitter (Ahmed et al., 2016). Later, digital platforms have become more and more intertwined with traditional media and thus have created a hybrid political communication environment (Chadwick, 2013). The current study explores the evolving nature of social media in political communication and voting in India between 2014 and 2024, as well as its impact and democratic issues. It follows a descriptive and analytical research design with a sole reliance on secondary data such as the reports of the Election Commission of India, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), government documents and peer-reviewed studies. The results reveal that the internet subscription rate jumped significantly from 267.40 million subscribers in December 2014 to 970.16 million subscribers in December 2024 (TRAI, 2015) (TRAI, 2025); moreover, social media channels were used for direct political communication and online participation (Ahmed S. M., 2024), which have grown in their usage. Meanwhile, the digital revolution in political communication has raised concerns about misinformation, political polarisation, digital inequality, private life and privacy (Neyazi, 2020) (Sharma, 2023). The study doesn't prove causation between social media growth and voter turnout. It finds that social media has enhanced the communicative power of electoral democracy, but that its democratic potential relies on the meaningful accessibility of digital media, media literacy, transparency, responsible use of data, and effective institutional protection.