NEW DELHI/ABU DHABI As US midterm elections enter their final stretch, researchers have uncovered coordinated social media activity by Indian accounts and consultants backing specific campaigns, raising questions about voter awareness of political content origins.
A investigation by Al Jazeera reveals a market for outsourced political content production and distribution across borders, with intermediaries and apparently independent accounts obscuring who is behind the message. The central question, researchers say, is whether voters can identify who is paying for political content, who is coordinating its circulation and whose interests it serves.
The report details how Indian political consultancies have expanded their operations beyond domestic elections to influence campaigns globally. Rajan Kumar, 22, a digital content creator in Ahmedabad, created 50 social media posts daily for William Ruto's 2022 Kenya presidential campaign for approximately $7 per day. Kumar's content was not shared by Ruto's official campaign but distributed through shadow social media accounts concealing their identity to make coordinated messaging appear independent.
Kumar admitted trimming opposing leaders' speeches or creating posters with false claims amplifying Ruto's prospects and popularity. His tactics included linking women politicians to someone to damage their reputation, he told Al Jazeera. William Ruto won the 2022 Kenya election and became its fifth president.
But the US is now the latest theatre of this electoral model. Researchers at Clemson University's Media Forensic Hub and Al Jazeera have identified at least 28 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) sharing videos supporting US Democratic politician Haley Stevens ahead of her August 4 Senate primary in Michigan. Stevens lost to Abdul El-Sayed, the party's candidate for the midterm election. Those 28 accounts garnered more than seven million views. At least 15 of the identified accounts were posting from India, a review by Al Jazeera found.
The investigation found that Indian consultants use various strategies to evade platform policies. Premium virtual private networks (VPNs) are the go-to tools when facing restrictions in one geography. Sometimes, simply changing an account's country of origin enables a person sitting in a foreign country to run targeted political advertisements.
Both Meta and Google's policies require political advertisers to verify their identities and disclose who paid for election advertisements, though specific rules vary by country. However, Indian consultants tell Al Jazeera that these community standards are routinely violated, with several loopholes exploitable.
"These platforms have long pages of such rules, but when you read between the lines, there are several loopholes one can exploit," said Tushar Giri, a political consultant in New Delhi.
The report also details the payment mechanisms used by such consultancies. Black money, one consultant said, is a pillar of political consultation. Several consultancies rely on hawala networks — an informal, trust-based money-transfer system that allows people to send funds across borders through brokers, bypassing conventional banking channels. At least three consultants identified export-focused businesses in Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk market as hubs for such transactions.
One consultant recalled carrying an Indian banknote bearing a specific serial number, which served as a code to identify and collect payment. "I saw people use 10-rupee notes to collect millions in cash," they told Al Jazeera. "It was like I'm in a movie."
The shadowy nature of the work extends to human risk as well. Two Indian political consultants working for Ruto's campaign, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai, went missing in Nairobi in July 2022 ahead of the election. They were found dead in October 2022, allegedly abducted by an elite police unit in Kenya. After winning, Ruto disbanded that unit. Fifteen officers were accused of murder, but in August 2026, Kenya's High Court terminated those charges after the prosecution requested the investigation be discontinued.
Amogh Dhar Sharma, author of Backstage of Democracy, a book on Indian political consultancies' workings, argued the phenomenon is an extension of India's global outsourcing industry. "Just as India became a hub for business-process outsourcing in the 2000s, the country is now seeing the rise of political consultancies that campaigns can hire to outsource their less transparent operations," Sharma told Al Jazeera.
The physical distance of those behind these shadowy social media promotions and the campaigns they work for gives everyone involved "plausible deniability" if operations are revealed, Sharma added.
Giri, the consultant, argued that success in this field depends on how far consultants are willing to go. "What are the limits? If one agency can execute filthy tricks to manipulate a voter — and think beyond the political party's own imagination — they are rewarded accordingly," he said. "The dirtier you can get, the more money and opportunities there are."
As US voters head to the polls, the investigation underscores the growing complexity of detecting coordinated influence operations and the challenges voters face in identifying the true origins and funding of political content online.
