For far-right groups in India, Instagram has become a place to promote violence, report shows

A new analysis of Instagram posts involving hate crimes in India claims that Meta’s widely used social networking platform has become a hub to promote, glorify and in some ways, reward violence.
The report, published by the Washington based think-tank Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), details how the platform amplifies and promotes violent and hateful content, allowing accounts that post hate crimes to fundraise on Instagram in violation of Meta’s content policies. These attackers, self-styled as “cow vigilantes,” target people transporting cattle, claiming they are protecting the animals considered sacred by many Hindus. Often, these victims are Muslim, India’s largest religious minority. Close to a third of the more than 1,000 Instagram accounts researchers tracked over six months posted videos of brutal physical assaults.
“For years, Instagram has served as a safe haven for militant cow vigilante groups and individuals to share extremist content, glorifying and encouraging violence in complete violation of the platform’s content policies. This report reveals a terrifying new reality faced by Muslim minorities in India, whose lives and livelihoods are continuously under threat as Meta enables these groups to thrive on its platforms,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, the executive director of CSOH.
A Meta spokesperson told PBS News that “we have strict policies against violent or graphic content on our platforms, and we enforce these rules impartially. We will review this report once we are provided it, and will remove any violating content and disable accounts of repeated offenders.”
India is home to nearly 200 million Muslims, the third largest population of Muslims in the world. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister since 2014, champions Hindutva, a nationalistic ideology built on a belief that India should be a Hindu-controlled state. The decade of Modi’s rule has been marked by increased violence against India’s religious minorities.
India also has more Instagram users than any other country in the world, with hundreds of millions of active users. Young men are particularly influenced by violent and hateful content, Naik said.
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“Instagram is central to cow vigilante operations, providing them with fame as ‘defenders’ of the Hindu religion and direct access to younger audiences. These demographics, influenced by factors such as unemployment and rising radicalism, are particularly vulnerable to recruitment,” Naik said.
The data collected by CSOH shows that posts showing physical violence, which often include graphic content without any filters, can attract millions of views.
“These vigilantes glorify their extremist activities on Instagram on an almost daily basis, with many accounts sharing videos of dangerous high-speed car chasing resulting in accidents, physical assaults, use of spike strips and fire arms,” Naik said.
The majority of these Instagram accounts are operated in states ruled by Modi’s ruling political party, the BJP.
“Cow vigilantism groups in India often operate with a significant degree of impunity, largely due to their connections with Hindu right groups, including the BJP,” said Sushant Singh, a senior foreign policy expert at the India-based Centre for Policy Research, and a lecturer at Yale University. “The BJP’s rise to power under Modi, not only at the federal level but even in various states across north and west India, has emboldened these groups. Many of them have political ambitions and see this as a pathway to a mainstream political role in the BJP,” Singh said.
The report also revealed that Instagram provides far greater engagement to reels that show physical violence. An analysis of the 20 most followed accounts showed that reels that depict assault and torture garnered hundreds of thousands more plays than the other videos posted by the same accounts.
These videos often show the perpetrators recording and boasting about their crimes. In one video cited in the report, a man wielding a stick poses with three men, visibly beaten and stuffed together inside the trunk of a car. The comments below the post are praising the perpetrator.
“The brazen glorification and celebration of this content aims to normalize such violence and promote the idea that violence against Muslims is a virtue. It highlights the impunity these individuals enjoy, both in the virtual and real world,” Naik said.
In one video cited in the report, a man wielding a stick poses with three men, visibly beaten and stuffed together inside the trunk of a car. The comments below the post are praising the perpetrator.
Other videos show victims pleading as they are brutally assaulted.
The captions on Instagram do not attempt to hide the identity of those committing crimes. Instead, they glorify people who lead mob violence. One such leader is Monu Manesar, a leader of a far-right Hindu extremist group “Bajrang Dal,” which enjoys patronage of top ministers in Modi’s cabinet and which the U.S. had once labeled as a militant religious organization. Manesar is the prime suspect in the high-profile kidnapping and killing of two Muslim men last year. The men, 35-year-old Junaid and 28-year-old Nasir, were abducted, beaten, and burned alive as an act of “cow vigilantism.”
“Because they were Muslim. Only because they were Muslim,” Junaid’s wife, Sajida, told PBS News earlier this year. Manesar was arrested and charged in connection with several crimes last year. He remains very influential in Hindu extremist circles. The report found tens of thousands of posts that use hashtag #MonuManesar to amplify their violent content, one of many hashtags that target cultural, religious and in some cases regional audiences.
Tagging posts with the name of far-right Hindu leader “#MonuManesar” enables the vigilantes to build a network on Instagram and amplify their violent content.
“Monu Manesar has become a god-like figure for cow vigilantes across India, inspiring others to imitate his brutal violence against Muslims. This is a clear example of copycat terrorism,” Naik said.
The Instagram account “@i_monumanesar,” which claims to be his official account, frequently posts appeals for contributions and donations.
Meta has faced other criticism for its decisions in India. During India’s election earlier this year, Facebook was accused of approving AI-manipulated political ads that spread disinformation and incited violence.
During the pandemic, the Indian government asked Meta to take down content that was critical of its decisions. And a report published by The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that Meta’s compliance with the government’s requests for data increased about 17 percent between early 2021 and late 2022.
Meta’s most recent quarterly standards enforcement report shows that the platform does take action on some organized hate content. The company reported taking action on 10 million Instagram items that violated graphic violence policies, and another 15 million for hate speech or incitement of violence worldwide.
Meta estimates about four to five of every 10,000 pieces of content on Instagram depict graphic violence. It says the most graphic content is removed, and warning labels can be applied to those that remain so people know it may be disturbing before they click through. Posts can also be age restricted to block users under 18 from viewing the content.
Meta also claims that globally, it took action on more than 98% of violent content before it was reported by a user last quarter.
However, when CSOH report’s authors tested the platform’s ‘Report’ feature to flag nearly 200 posts depicting physical violence, Meta did not take action on any of the reported videos. According to the report, Meta stated none of the videos “breached its community guidelines.”
The CSOH report details how Meta has failed to follow its own guidelines to stop the promotion of these hate crimes and violence on Instagram in India, and how these organizations use violent content to fundraise on the platform.
“Instagram and Facebook have become a crucial tool for these groups to promote their violent activities. They use platforms to share videos of their actions, glorify violence, gain followers and spread fear among Muslims. This online presence also helps them raise funds, build their profile and spread their ideology,” Singh said.
The CSOH report found that of the 150 most-followed accounts that posted videos of physical violence against cattle transporters, more than one-third had the “Send Gift” option activated on their reels, enabling them to make money off of their violent content.
“Instagram provides a platform for fundraising, allowing these vigilantes to finance and expand their activities, which effectively means more violence targeting Muslim minorities,” Naik said.