Meta approved ads inciting violence against Muslims during Lok Sabha polls, reports ‘The Guardian’

American social media conglomerate Meta approved 14 advertisements containing disinformation and inflammatory content amid India’s parliamentary election, The Guardian reported on Monday, citing an investigation by two civil society organisations.

Among the advertisements that were approved were those that called for burning Muslims and executing a key Opposition leader.

The investigation was carried out by Ekō, a corporate accountability organisation and India Civil Watch International.

The two organisations, to test Meta’s mechanisms to block inflammatory content during India’s Lok Sabha election, created and submitted 22 advertisements to Meta’s ad library, the database of all advertisements on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. They said that all the advertisements, created through artificial intelligence, violated Meta’s policies on hate speech and misinformation.

Fourteen of the 22 advertisements were approved by Meta within 24 hours, the organisations said. The investigation was carried out from May 8 to May 13, between the third and fourth phases of the Lok Sabha election.

The advertisements targeted Muslims with inflammatory references such as “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned”, according to The Guardian. They reportedly used Hindu supremacist language and contained disinformation about political leaders.

One of the approved advertisements also contained messaging mimicking that of doctored video of Union home minister Amit Shah claiming to remove reservations for...

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