Reporters Without Orders Ep 212: Facebook and its ‘ghost advertisers’

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by journalists Kumar Sambhav and Shreegireesh Jalihal from the Reporters’ Collective.

They discuss Sambhav and Shreegireesh’s four-part series, along with journalist Nayantara Ranganathan, for Al Jazeera on how Facebook allowed “surrogate advertisers to secretly fund BJP’s election campaigns”.

“The Election Commission needs to take into consideration these social media ads,” says Shreegireesh, “and not just print and mainstream.” They also explain how “ghost advertisers” hide behind pages posting content on social work and fundraising, but while actually advertising for political parties.

This, and a lot more, as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in.

Watch a part of the conversation here:

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Produced and recorded by Tehreem Roshan, edited by Umrav Singh.