Instead, the action was happening on WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook that has about 250 million users in India. Mr. Bhat, a B.J.P. youth leader, said he used WhatsApp to stay in constant touch with the 60 voters he was assigned to track for the party. He sent them critiques of the state government, dark warnings about Hindus being murdered by Muslims — including a debunked B.J.P. videos, and false news stories, including a fake poll purportedly commissioned by the BBC that predicted a sweeping B.J.P.

Source: New York Times May 14, 2018 18:17 UTC