Is social media good for democracy? Nearly 2 in 3 Indians say yes

Nearly two in three Indians say social media has been more good than bad for democracy, according to a Pew Research Centre survey of 37 countries.Pew found that, when ranked, the median (the middle country) is more than half (55 per cent). India, at 66 per cent, was among the most positive, level with South Africa. Fewer than one in four Indians called social media bad.Pew interviewed 3,566 Indian adults face-to-face between February 8 and April 27 — before the protests against the Election Commission of India in September and October. The survey cannot say how those weeks changed anyone's mind. Pew also cautions that its 2023 figures for India are not comparable. So, there is no telling whether Indians have grown warmer or cooler.COMPARED TO REST OF WORLDThe countries most positive about social media are mostly poorer ones. In Nigeria, top of the list, eight in 10 called it good for democracy. Singapore, the richest country surveyed, is the exception, tied for second. On the other end, more than a quarter of the Dutch and more than one in three Americans agreed. "In nations with lower gross domestic product per capita, people tend to be less negative about social media," the report's authors wrote. India fits that pattern. Its income per person, $2,702 in 2025, according to the World Bank figures Pew used, is among the lowest of the countries surveyed. Fewer than one in four Indians call social media harmful, close to the 24 per cent median of the five countries nearest to India in income. In seven countries, all of them wealthy, most people said it had done more harm than good.DOES THE ‘YES’ HOLD UP? India's answer comes with an unusual number of shrugs. More than one in 10 Indians said they did not know, or would not say. That’s more than twice the share in the median country (one in 20). Only Israel and Sri Lanka had more. Even if all of them had called social media bad for democracy, the yes side would still lead, 66 per cent to 34 per cent.WHAT INDIANS THINKPew asked whether the internet and social media had made people more informed, more able to have a say in politics, more divided or easier to fool with false information.On all four, good and bad alike, Indians were less likely than people in the typical country to say "more". Nearly two in three Indians said people were better informed; in the median country, more than three in four did.More than half said people had become more divided, against more than two in three. And more than three in five said people were easier to manipulate with false information, the lowest share of all 37 countries, where the median was nearly four in five.Some of that gap is uncertainty. Between one in 10 and one in six Indians did not answer these questions.The result: a country more likely than most to call social media good for democracy, and less likely than most to say it has changed people.WHO SAYS YES?"Young adults in most nations are especially likely to believe social media has a positive effect on democracy," the report's authors wrote. In India, nearly three in four of those aged 18–34 said so, compared with half of those aged 50 and older. Nearly seven in 10 of those aged 35–49 agreed.That 24-point gap is among the largest of the 23 countries where Pew found a clear difference by age. Only Britain's, at 29 points, was bigger.PLATFORMS INDIANS USEPew asked respondents which five platforms they use. Facebook was the most used in India — by more than two in five adults. In the median country, nearly seven in 10 use it. Fewer Indians than people in the typical country also use Instagram (nearly two in five, against more than half) and X (fewer than one in 10, against nearly one in five). Snapchat, used by nearly one in five Indians, matches the median.These are shares of all adults, online or not, so they partly reflect how many Indians use the internet at all. TikTok, used by two in five people in the median country, has been banned in India since 2020.WHAT SURVEY CAN’T TELLIt records opinions, not reasons, so it cannot say why Indians feel this way. Pew did not ask Indians about their political leanings. Nor does it speak for all of India. Pew's sample left out Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim, along with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.- Ends