India's election "consultants" sell bots and shadow pages to campaigns from Kenya to Suriname, and now the U.S.

L2Who’s affected

Voters in Kenya, the U.S. and elsewhere. Antibot4Navalny says the pro-Stevens accounts drew more than seven million views; Stevens lost the Aug 4 primary to Abdul El-Sayed. Workers like Kumar are paid little, coordinated on Telegram, and told to destroy SIM cards and delete chats.

L3Why it’s quiet

Analysis · OVERLOOKED The work is designed to be hidden, and the distance between consultants and campaigns gives "plausible deniability," as author Amogh Dhar Sharma puts it.

L4Deeper impact

Consultants say Meta and Google rules are routinely bypassed with premium VPNs or by changing an account's country. Payments use hawala networks and front companies; one consultant: "Black money is a pillar of political consultation," and described 10-rupee notes with set serial numbers used to collect millions in cash. Giri: "you can manipulate elections anywhere in the world at the cheapest cost in India."

L5Full context

Consultants say they have pitched or worked campaigns in Suriname, Nepal and Sri Lanka; Sharma found Indian consultancies in Australia and Germany. Two Indian consultants working for Ruto's campaign, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai, went missing in Nairobi in July 2022 and were found dead in October, allegedly abducted by an elite police unit; in August 2026 Kenya's High Court terminated murder charges against 15 officers. Sharma: this is "an extension of the global outsourcing industry."

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