New Delhi, Apr 12 (ANI): Leaders of various political outfits on Friday gave mixed reaction to a study, which said social media is likely to influence 160 Lok Sabha seats in the next general elections.
“There are 160 high impact constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies, which are likely be influenced by social media during the next general elections,” the study by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and Internet and Mobile Association of India has said.
Reacting to this, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said that social media would have impact on 543 parliament constituencies.
“Social media plays a crucial role and we are surprised that the network has only reached till 160 seats. We were thinking that it would impact 400 seats. Social media will have impact on 543 parliament constituencies because whoever has a mobile, has an access to social media,” said Hussain.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Jai Prakash Agarwal said that the use of the social media networking sites would prove beneficial for the party.
“The social media networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and other websites will be beneficial for us. If you look at Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee website, you will see that all the data has been uploaded and it is a complete website in itself. We do not have to tell anyone about what we are doing,” he said.
” The entire information about whatever we are doing is there on the website. People can easily access it and we should take advantage of this,” he added.
However, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Ali Anwar said that there was a need to address the woes of the common man rather than getting hi-tech.
“No one is concerned about people who are starving to death. There is no safe drinking water, people are dying out of malnutrition in Gujarat and Maharashtra. People are concerned about getting hi-tech. It”s fine if they are able to afford it. The main issue of the common man and the youth is employment and access to safe food,” said Anwar.
Meanwhile, cyber law expert and an advocate, Pavan Duggal said that social media has had a tremendous impact already upon the population of the country.
“In the history of independent India, never has a general election been fought at such a scenario that the social media has had a tremendous impact already upon the population of the country,” he said.
“Therefore, the 2014 elections is going to be distinct, why, because this is going to be the election, which is going to see the real impact of social media on voting. Already when you look at the overall penetration of social media given the mobile revolution that”s happening in our country, more and more people are using social media not just communicating but also for the purposes of expressing their political speech and their political ideas. Therefore, this 2014 elections is expected to have a direct impact from social media,” he added.
Facebook Inc reached 1 billion active users in September, a level of global penetration that has made its quest for sustained growth more challenging.
YouTube was an instant success after its founding by three former PayPal employees in 2005, adding millions of users in its first year. Google bought it for $1.65 billion in 2006.
The fast-growing video site, which had about 800 million unique monthly users a year ago, now represents one of Google”s key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside of its traditional internet search advertising business. (ANI)