“The goal is to amplify this misinformation, and BJP leaders share it, so that people think it is authentic,” says Naik. “In the long run, this builds the argument against a critic, a journalist, that this person is bad, because there are reports against him.”
When WIRED contacted OpIndia for comment, Sharma responded to our emailed questions by posting his responses on X.
When asked about hate speech and misinformation on his site, Sharma wrote: “Our critics are mostly Islamists, jihadists, terrorists, leftists and their sympathizers, like you. “We don’t particularly care about any of them.” He then added that “Islamophobia does not exist” and pointed to an OpIndia article outlining his position. Sharma added that it was “none of his business” when asked if OpIndia was funded by the BJP. Sharma’s post also tagged one of the authors of this story, who then faced a torrent of abuse from Sharma’s followers.
For years, activists and researchers have attempted to highlight problematic content published by OpIndia. TO UK-based advocacy group Stop Funding Hate’s 2020 campaign led to several advertisers removing their ads from the site. Google, however, says that the content posted on the site does not appear to violate its own rules.
“All sites in our network, including Opindia, must comply with our publisher policies, which explicitly prohibit ads from appearing alongside content that promotes hate speech, violence, or demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust or participation in an election,” says Google spokesperson Michael Aciman. “Publishers are also subject to regular reviews and we actively block or remove ads for any infringing content.”
Despite this, users can find ads from Temu or the Palm Beach Post alongside many OpIndia articles promoting conspiracies and Islamophobia, published with the help of ad-sharing platforms such as Google’s Ad Manager, which is the leader of the market.
Meanwhile, Facebook, Wiley says, is more of a “walled garden.” Once a publisher meets the company’s monetization criteria, including having more than 1,000 followers, they can earn money from ads that run on the page.
While researchers who spoke to WIRED couldn’t say exactly how much the site earned from Google Ads and Facebook monetization, they said OpIndia likely doesn’t rely solely on ad sharing for its revenue. It appears that, as with many media outlets in India, some of that funding comes from more traditional advertising from a major client: the government.
“A large section of India’s traditional press depends on government announcements for its survival,” says Prashanth Bhat, a professor of media studies at the University of Houston. “Such revenues are critical to the survival of mainstream media in a hyper-competitive media environment like India. We have around 400 24/7 TV news channels in India in different languages and we have more than 10,000 registered newspapers. To survive, they definitely need government sponsorship.”
Sharma confirmed that OpIndia depends partly on government announcements. “Literally every media outlet receives advertisements from various political parties,” Sharma said. “In fact, a part of his salary could also be financed by said parties and/or their sympathizers. Get off your horse.”
