Beware the YouTuber

LAST WEEK, WE HEARD about a YouTuber, Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested by agencies in India for spying. Her charm and her spying ability rested on the fact that she proclaimed herself to be a YouTube influencer. I’ve often said that in India today we have so many influencers that one doesn’t know if there are any non-influencer common people left behind.

Because anyone who has a phone, which most people do, and anyone who has half-a-brain, which I hope some people do, are now becoming influencers. And it’s a very, very cosy club, because you can go to hotels and charm the rather inept, unintelligent marketing manager to say, “Look, I have a proposal, I have 400 followers, but these are very important people, and would you allow me to have some cheap, free Thai food?” And then they do it.

So what happens is that the hotel manager feels good, and the marketing manager scores some points. Whether those points result in enduring revenue for that brand is another matter. And the YouTuber keeps gaining and gathering content. So what we are seeing today in India is something that we are seeing across the world. More influencers were talking about people who walked for the Met Gala than people can imagine.

And I’m seeing this trend from both a brand marketing perspective as well as a consumer aspiration perspective. Do we really want this kind of influencer to be our role model? And the influencer racket is not limited only to brands or travel or hotels, or airlines. It has now spread its wings to other forms of dissemination, whether it’s a podcast or it is a YouTube show. And one has seen with great dismay and disdain how everyone is now getting onto this podcast racket.

I’ve often said that there are more podcasts in India than functioning traffic lights, because everyone who has a mouth, as most of them do, and half-a-brain again, wants to do a podcast. Who watches or hears the podcast? Four to five family members, an intelligent dog, and that’s about it. But they can go around telling the world, “Oh, you know, I also do a podcast”—much like many years ago, more and more people took to becoming authors.

One has nothing against people using social media platforms to disseminate information but that information needs to be vetted, and the the people to vet that should be people who are operating that platform. So, if we were to actually button down the issues that have been prompted by the absolute misuse of social media, one of the things that will come to mind is how social media is manipulated by three stakeholders—the brand, the brand manager, and the influencer.

And these three work in a cartel of deathly influence because this influence then allows them to spin whatever narrative they choose to. A lot has already been said about how the narrative was fake when Operation Sindoor was going on, and I don’t wish to get into that because I have no military prowess. But to discuss the absolute abuse of social media in the context of our society is something we need to take cognisance of.

We cannot allow YouTube or other platforms to remain unchecked, unhindered, and unencumbered because the dangers will be far too wide, the implications very severe, and the outcomes quite deadly if this is not put under some kind of scanner, both in terms of validation and facts. We cannot allow a society that has happy YouTubers converting into night-time and daytime spies and then giving away official secrets of our country to enemies who have nothing but ill will towards our country. We also need a mechanism for figuring out who these people are and which organisations are using social media to disseminate both hatred and divisiveness, to disseminate falsehoods and false claims, and to therefore create a web of deceit.

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