WhatsApp Politics

Everyday political life and the politics of WhatsApp in India.

This project examines how WhatsApp and digital private spaces are shaping political life in India today. With over 500 million users, there are more WhatsApp users in India than in any other democracy. Connecting people within the equivalent of ‘digital living room’ WhatsApp has become a digital ‘necessity’ for citizens, activists, political parties and the government alike, and demanded new understandings of privacy, democracy and the domestic. The project therefore examines both the politics of WhatsApp and how it mediates everyday political life in India today.