Data: Between 2023 and 2024, the number of complaints on X (Twitter) increased, but the number of suspended accounts decreased significantly.

The government has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, making it mandatory for Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) to publish monthly compliance reports with details of multiple items, including complaints and actions taken. Data shows that between March and July 2023 and 2024, while the number of complaints on X (Twitter) increased, the number of suspended accounts decreased significantly.

In the previous story, we analysed the trend in complaints reported to Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs), following the Indian government’s mandate to proactively publish such data. We also highlighted the limitations in the data reported by these platforms and examined the trends in the volume and types of complaints received by SSMIs in 2023, particularly in the context of the five state elections towards the end of 2023.

In this story, we focus on the trends in the number and types of complaints received by SSMIs, in light of the recently concluded 18th Lok Sabha elections, 2024.

Methodology and notes

• The data used for this analysis comes from Dataful’s collection of datasets on complaint and action taken reports published by SSMIs.
• The top five SSMIs whose data is analyzed in this story are Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google, and WhatsApp.
• The 18^and The Lok Sabha elections were held in April and May 2024, with the results announced in June 2024. We analysed the trends in complaints received by SSMIs over a five-month period, from March to July, covering one month before the elections and one month after the declaration of results.
• To identify patterns, we compared complaint trends in these months in 2024 on a year-on-year (yoy) basis with the previous two years (2022 and 2023), and also on a monthly basis in 2024.

The number of complaints received via WhatsApp shows a steady increase, while 4 other SSMIs show a mixed trend

Analysis of the total number of complaints received by SSMIs on an annual and monthly basis reveals various trends.

In the case of Twitter (now X), the yoy comparison shows a significant increase in the number of complaints from 2023 to 2024. Between March and July 2023 vs. 2024, the number of complaints increased from 118 to 5158, 158 to 18562, 518 to 17780, 3340 to 12570, and 2056 to 17116, respectively. In contrast, the number of complaints received in 2022 for the same months was 795, 1480, 1583, 724, and 1253, respectively. This indicates that while there was a significant increase in the number of complaints in 2024, there were mixed trends in 2023 compared to 2022, with only June and July showing an increase in numbers. When compared on a monthly basis in 2024, the number of complaints showed an increasing trend from March to April and from June to July, but a decreasing trend from April to May and from May to June.

Interestingly, Twitter’s data on account suspensions shows a sharp decline. A comparison of this data between March and July 2023 and the same period in 2024 shows a significant decline in suspensions. Suspensions decreased from 8,17,636 to 2,13,862 in March, from 25,53,872 to 1,85,424 in April, from 11,34,071 to 2,30,892 in May, from 5,46,245 to 1,96,044 in June, and from 18,53,887 to 90,911 in July. Despite an increase in complaints in some months during this period, the overall trend shows a decline in account suspensions.

In the case of Instagram, the number of complaints in 2023 compared to 2022 showed a consistent increase. From March to July 2022 versus 2023, complaints increased from 1150 to 9226, 6246 to 9676, 13869 to 16267, 4676 to 19913, and 1033 to 20146, respectively. In 2024, the number of complaints for the same months was 12084, 12924, 14373, 10410, and 10442, respectively. Compared to 2023, the number of complaints decreased in May, June, and July in 2024, while it increased in March and April. Moreover, the number of complaints in 2024 increased from March to April and from April to May, but then decreased from May to June and from June to July. A similar pattern is seen on Facebook, suggesting a possible increase during the election.

However, in Google’s case, the number of complaints decreased every month in March and July of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The number of complaints decreased from 35,406 to 23,170 in March, from 28,739 to 20,961 in April, from 28,301 to 22,552 in May, from 26,078 to 21,120 in June, and from 29,603 to 24,303 in July. In 2022, the number of complaints for the same months was 31699, 23322, 25694, 32717, and 37173, respectively. Compared to 2023, the number of complaints was less in June and July in 2022, while they increased from March to May. Monthly analysis for 2024 showed that the number of complaints increased from April to May and from June to July, but decreased from March to April and from May to June.

Unlike other SSMIs, WhatsApp showed a consistent increase in complaints. The number of complaints in 2022 versus 2023 increased from 597 to 4720 in March, 844 to 4377 in April, 528 to 3912 in May, 632 to 7893 in June and 574 to 11067 in July. This upward trend continued in 2024 with the number of complaints further increasing to 12782, 10554, 13367, 26200 and 34650 from March to July. In 2024, the number of complaints decreased only from March to April while it increased consistently in all other months.

Complaints about hateful conduct and misinformation show a significant increase

In order to analyze the impact of elections on the number of complaints filed with SSMIs, we also examined the types of complaints received by these platforms. As highlighted in our previous story, it is important to note that there is no standardized categorization prescribed by government regulations on how SSMIs should classify complaints. Each platform uses its own system to categorize the complaints it receives. The categorization methods used by each SSMI are as follows:

As you can see, the categorization of complaints varies between SSMIs. For our analysis, we focused on complaints that could be directly or indirectly related to elections for each SSMI.

For Twitter (X), we selected Defamation, Hateful Conduct, and Misinformation as the relevant categories. From 2022 to 2023, defamation complaints increased from 17 to 23, 11 to 22, 1 to 51, 2 to 41, and 10 to 14 in each month from March to July. In 2024, these numbers were 2, 64, 94, 25, and 66. Compared to 2023, the number of defamation complaints decreased in March and June, while increasing in the other months. While there was an increase in each month from 2022 to 2023, only three months in 2024 showed an increase in these complaints. When comparing monthly for 2024, these complaints only decreased from May to June. In contrast, the trends for Hateful Conduct and Misinformation show significant changes.

In the case of Hateful Conduct, complaints decreased every month in 2023 compared to 2022, except in June. In 2022, they were 97, 196, 111, 134, and 303 from March to July, respectively. In 2023, they were 32, 19, 84, 712, and 54. However, in 2024, complaints increased significantly to 412, 3353, 3763, 2196, and 5231, which represents a substantial increase compared to 2023. A similar upward trend is seen for complaints about Misinformation.

As far as Instagram and Facebook are considered, the only likely applicable category is fake profiling pretending to be me. For Instagram, compared to 2022, these have decreased in the months of April, May and June of 2023, while they increased in March and July. However, compared to 2023, all of these months have seen a significant increase in 2024. From 1050, 1164, 1094, 936 and 1981 in the months of March through July in 2023, they have increased to 5055, 3861, 4547, 3833 and 3346 respectively in 2024.

Google and WhatsApp do not have specific categories of complaints directly related to elections. However, WhatsApp provides monthly data on the total number of accounts that have been banned.

A comparison of WhatsApp account bans from March to July for 2022, 2023, and 2024 reveals that while account bans increased every month in 2023 compared to 2022, they decreased in most months of 2024 compared to 2023, except July. In 2022, the number of banned accounts was 23.8, 22.1, 19.1, 16.6, and 18 lakhs from March to July respectively. In 2023, these numbers increased significantly to 72.2, 66.1, 65, 74.5, and 47.1 lakhs, an increase of 202%, 199%, 240%, 347%, and 161% respectively. In 2024, the numbers dropped to 61.2, 60.6, 6.6, 71.8 and 79.5 lakhs. Except for July, which saw a 68.6% increase, the numbers dropped by 15%, 8%, 89% and 3% respectively from March to June compared to 2023. This indicates that while the number of complaints on WhatsApp has increased from 2022 to 2023 and from 2023 to 204, the number of banned accounts is showing a downward trend from 2023 to 2024.

In summary, while Twitter (X) showed mixed trends in total complaints from March to July 2024, there was an increase in complaints related to hate speech and misinformation during the same period. While this phenomenon may not be directly related to the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the possibility cannot be completely ruled out. For other SSMIs, the lack of proper categorization makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the impact of the elections. Similarly, despite the significant increase in complaints on WhatsApp, the lack of proper categorization of complaints makes it difficult to infer whether this increase is directly related to the elections.