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LONDON: Technology giant Mehta approved political ads inciting violence and hate speech on its platform during India’s general elections, a report released on Monday found.

The study, conducted by non-sectarian diaspora group India Civil Watch International and corporate watchdog group Echo, found that Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, spread disinformation specifically targeting Muslims and encouraged religious violence. It turned out that they were allowing AI-controlled political ads to incite people.

The report found that Meta’s system failed to ban a series of inflammatory ads uploaded by ICWI and Eko that were designed to mimic real-life scenarios.

Ads submitted to Mehta’s ad library include slurs against Indian Muslims, including “Let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is in our veins, these invaders must be burnt.” was included.

Other ads featured Hindu supremacist language and false claims about political leaders, including opposition leaders who allegedly wanted to “cleanse Hindus from India” and called for their execution.

According to the report, all ads are “based on actual hate speech and disinformation prevalent in India, highlighting the ability of social media platforms to amplify existing harmful discourse.” That’s what it means.

Of the 22 ads submitted in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Kannada, 14 were approved by Meta, with an additional three requiring minor tweaks that did not change the overall provocative message. It was added and then approved.

Only five ads were rejected for violating Meta’s community standards regarding hate speech and violence.

These ads primarily targeted Muslims and were quickly removed after approval by ICWI and Eko.

The organizations accused Mehta of profiting from hate speech and failing to honor its pledge to prevent AI-generated or manipulated content from spreading on its platform during India’s elections.

Campaign spending for India’s election, the world’s largest and longest running, is estimated to reach $16 billion.

The report also claims that the approved ads violate India’s election rules, which prohibit election-related content 48 hours before and during voting.

Mehta has had to vet approvals for accounts that run political ads and already faced controversy during India’s general election this year.

Previous reports by ICWI and Eko found that proxy or “shadow” accounts affiliated with political parties were paid large sums of money to spread unauthorized political advertising on the platform.

Some of the accounts approved to run political ads were put up for sale in public Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members.

Many of these actual ads supported Islamophobic tropes and Hindu supremacist narratives.

The tech giant has struggled for years with the spread of Islamophobic content on its platform, and Meta’s ability to enforce policies and control the situation amid rising anti-Muslim sentiment in India There are concerns about this.