India’s internet war

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In 2014, Narendra Modi pioneered the use of social media and digital campaigning in India to become prime minister. Known as one of the first global politicians to harness the power of the internet, he has the most social media followers of any world leader currently in office. Today, over a decade since Modi’s digital-first political campaign, an internet-fueled youth movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (or the Cockroach People’s Party) is using the same social media platforms to organize protests, successfully forcing the resignation of one of Prime Minister Modi’s top advisers. The Indian government has responded with a crackdown, arresting protesters and increasingly censoring X, Meta, and other social meda sites. The legacy of the Cockroach Janta Party will be complex: on one hand, it brought to the forefront important conversations around Gen Z unemployment and meritocracy; on the other, it may have pushed the Indian government to create stricter new censorship laws to silence future dissent. The internet that helped propel Modi to power is becoming a tool that a new generation uses against him. How much further will Modi’s government go to censor its people and restrict free speech? Read more about censorship in India and the Cockroach Janta Party: Censorship tracker on MediaNama, a live list of censorship following the Jantar Mantar protests in New Delhi: https://www.medianama.com/2026/07/223-censorship-tracker-live-list-jantar-mantar-protests-new-delhi/ “Social Media Modi-Fication: Narendra Modi’s use of Social Media in Indian Elections 2014”: https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/mediasia2014/MediAsia2014_04062.pdf “India CJP protests: Young women face harassment and abuse”: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g43l251vyo “Activists decry AI surveillance at CJP protests”: https://www.dw.com/en/india-news-activists-decry-ai-surveillance-at-cjp-protests/live-78139564 “India’s young are more educated than ever. Why are so many jobless?”: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17841zez8wo If you enjoy our reporting and want to hear more from Vox journalists, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/vox. Each month, our members get access to exclusive videos, livestreams, and chats with our newsroom. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H