Ever since Facebook got rapped on its knuckles for allegedly flouting data privacy guidelines which allowed them to target specific ads at a target audience most suited for those ads, it seems to have been trying to redeem itself.

In its latest exercise to “increase transparency in advertising,” the social media giant created an Ad Archive to empower people with more information about some of the ads they see and the advertisers who are funding them. The Archive contains ads on elected officials, candidates for public office and issues of national importance, such as education or immigration. Facebook began collecting ads that were launched on or after May 7, 2018, and these advertisements will be stored on the platform for up to seven years.

At the same time, Facebook also released its Ad Archive Report for India on March 4, 2019, which includes ads related to politics and issues of national importance that have run on Facebook or Instagram. The report consists of a weekly summary of the Ad Library and includes data on ads that have been viewed by people in India for a specified time period. The online version of this report lists the highest spending advertisers on the platform. Data has been released for the period from February 2019 to March 2.

This throws up some fascinating results—one that shows aggressive advertising and heavy money being thrown around with each passing week as we approach nearer to the election.

In its Ad Library, Facebook has a total of 16,556 ads that are “related to politics and issues of national importance and shows the amount advertisers have spent on them since February 2019”. The total amount spent on these ads is ₹4,13,88,087.

The highest spending pages on Facebook and Instagram (Facebook began collecting ads that were launched on or after May 7, 2018) belong to none other than the BJP—or ghost advertisers who are pro-BJP and want to see the lotus flower bloom with every click.

With barely a month to go before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the amount being spent on advertising by the BJP and pro-BJP advertisers exceeds crores of rupees. From February 2019 to March 2, 2019, the page “Bharat Ki Mann Ki Baat” spent a whopping ₹1,01,60,240 on advertising 1,168 different ads across Facebook and Instagram. In second place is a page called “Nation with NaMo”, having spent ₹52,24,296 during the same month with 631 ads in its arsenal. In third place is “MyGov India” with ₹25,27,349 being spent on advertising 114 ads.

All three of these pages ran ads without a disclaimer—thereby making them ghost advertisers. Here’s how Facebook’s report describes ads that run without a disclaimer: “When an advertiser categorises their ad as being related to politics or an issue of national importance, they are required to disclose who paid for the ad [emphasis added]. If an ad runs without a disclaimer, this field will say, ‘These ads ran without a disclaimer,’ meaning that after the ad started running, Facebook determined it was related to politics and issues of national importance and hence, required the label. The ad is then taken down.”

Ads that ran with a disclaimer—meaning they were paid for from the BJP’s coffers—were not far behind when it came to lavish spending on advertising. For example, another page with the same name “Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat” that ran with a disclaimer came in fifth on the monthly table of February 2019 to March 2, 2019—just four places behind its ghost counterpart in terms of advertising spending. It spent a total of ₹18,47,555 on advertising 388 different ads. Another page which came in sixth place shares the exact same name as “Nation with NaMo”. It ran 443 ads with a disclaimer, spending ₹11,86,079 on advertising.

The BJP itself, under its own page name, spent ₹6,60,404 advertising just two advertisements with a disclaimer in the same time period.

There were also ghost advertisers for pages such as “NaMo Merchandise” and “Amit Shah” that spent heavily on running their ads without a disclaimer. In the last month, these two spent ₹2,12,071 and ₹3,17,852, respectively, on advertising across Facebook and Instagram. In fact, the page “NaMo Merchandise” even has a blue tick on Instagram even though it has only a little over 8,000 followers. However, the page does follow just one person on the Gram—the official account of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Let’s take a closer look at the weekly data beginning February 24, 2019, till March 2, 2019. This reveals that the amounts spent by the same ghost advertisers were increasing with each passing week as we approach nearer to the general election. For example, “Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat” had spent a total of ₹1,01,60,240 on ghost advertising from February 2019 till March 2, 2019. From February 24 to March 2, it was in first place during this weekly period, spending ₹20,16,692—more than one-fifth of its total monthly amount.

In second, third, and fourth place on this weekly chart are the similarly-named “Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat”, “Nation with NaMo” and “MyGov India”, the ones that ran their ads with a disclaimer (were willing to disclose who paid for the ads). All three of them spent their entire monthly advertising amounts during this period only: ₹18,47,555, ₹11,86,079 and ₹9,13,786, respectively.

So, you not only have the BJP themselves aggressively advertising on Facebook and Instagram but also ghost advertisers of pages who are willing to shell out copious amounts of money to further the saffron cause. This does raise some red flags. For example, will the Election Commission take note of the amounts being spent on adverting by these ghost advertisers? Will this type of online advertising be held accountable in the immediate weeks leading up to the Lok Sabha 2019 election? Only time will tell.

Newslaundry has reached out to Facebook for more information. The story will be updated when a response is received.