Digital Platforms

Arena 5.3 · weight 3 · reading 29.3 · opposed majority

21.1Scope

The online battlefield.¹

The arena is measured by views first: 12-month views of 324 independent YouTube channels and reel views of 220 Instagram accounts (about 50 crore Indians use Instagram) carry two thirds of the weight; how search and AI-answer platforms frame contested India questions; followers on YouTube, Instagram and X count for less.

21.2Significance

Youth opinion, trends, mobilisation, TV pick-up.

21.3Indicators and weights

Table 21.1 lists the 7 indicators of the arena, the weight of each within the arena, and each indicator’s reading (the Hindutva-aligned share, from 0 to 100).

Table 21.1. Indicators of arena 5.3

21.4Reading

The arena reads 29.3, 20.7 points below parity, and is classified as opposed majority (a reading below 45). With a weight of 3 of a total 107.7, it contributes 0.81 points to the composite reading of 45.7.

The indicators diverge: the highest reading is for Instagram followers (same 220 accounts) (60.3), the lowest for followers from Pakistan and Bangladesh (X and Instagram) (14.0).

21.5Measures and exhibits

The exhibits below are the Atlas’s own views of the data behind each measure: shares by side, the largest units, breakdowns by source, recipient and country, money-flow diagrams and time series. Full row-level ledgers are in the data file (Appendix D).

Measure 1. YouTube long-form recent-video views (proxy; 324 independent channels; TV brands counted in TV news)

Reading 22.1%

Measure 2. Instagram reel views (mean views per recent reel × accounts; 220 accounts (262 audited; TV-brand and government handles excluded))

Reading 36.2%

Reel views read from public reel embeds, 3-4 recent reels per account (S7 instagram_units.csv, reels_views_m)

Measure 3. AI assistants (5 models: 4 Claude, gpt-oss-20b; 205 answers on contested India questions)

Reading 17.3%

Google search and Wikipedia ranking on the same questions are NOT YET MEASURED; AI answers stand in for the search layer until they are

Measure 4. YouTube subscribers (324 independent channels; TV brands counted in TV news)

Reading 27.1%

subs_m in digital_units.csv notes; non-news channels only, as the views component, so the TV brands are not counted twice (owner, round 2 D12; audit D57-014; all 473 channels read 53.5)

Measure 6. X followers (193 accounts; TV-brand and government handles excluded)

Reading 57.4%

News-channel handles left out as on Instagram (owner, round 2 D13; audit D57-038): H 395.2m vs R 292.9m; with them 56.6

Measure 7. Followers from Pakistan and Bangladesh (X and Instagram)

Reading 14.0%

Hindutva's share of the followers that come from Pakistan and Bangladesh: 17.5% of the opposing accounts' followers (owner's estimate, 15-20%, from a social-media analysis), 2% of the Hindutva accounts' (owner's default). Live from the follower rows. Grade E: an estimate, to be replaced by measured audience-country data. Direct: it lifts these accounts' reach. The analysis (Instagram reel) ↗

Measure 8. Google News: who ranks for contested India searches (600 results, English and Hindi)

Reading 33.4%

Hindutva-leaning 33 vs Hostile or unclassified 67

Measure 9. Wikipedia: how 30 contested India pages are framed, by pageviews

Reading 11.5%

Hindutva-framed 12 vs Hostile-framed 89

Measure 10. Context: shown for reference, not part of the reading

21.6Evidence base

The arena rests on 1,162 coded units. Of the units and flows, 331 are coded Hindutva-aligned, 546 opposed and 285 neutral, mixed or transactional. By source grade: 205 grade A, 957 grade B.

The full set of rows for this arena, each with its source, is in the Atlas data file (Appendix D).