Prime Minister Modi opens his WhatsApp channel

By siliconindia  |  Wednesday, 20 September 2023, 11:57:00 AM IST

Prime Minister Modi opens his WhatsApp channel
Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared his entry to WhatsApp, a platform that has been a powerful campaigning tool for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but had hitherto not been used directly by the PM for outreach. According to authorities, the WhatsApp channel, which was established last Thursday, attracted hundreds of followers within minutes of being live. As his first upload to the platform, Mr Modi sent a picture of himself at a desk in the new Parliament building along with the English-language caption, 'Thrilled to join the WhatsApp community! It brings our path of ongoing encounters one step closer. Let's remain in contact here!'
WhatsApp channels are a means of one-way communication, with no way to contact a channel owner from within the platform officials handling Mr. Modi’s broadcasts will also not be able to see subscribers’ phone numbers, except for those people whose numbers are saved on their phones, the Meta-owned firm said in a message to users subscribing to updates from the Prime Minister. Meta did not immediately provide a comment on the launch of the channel. 
India is WhatsApp’s largest market, with nearly every smartphone having the messaging app installed. The app has around half a billion users in India, according to multiple industry estimates. Mr. Modi’s personal social media accounts have 48 million followers on Facebook, 17.7 million YouTube subscribers, and 91.8 million followers on X (formerly Twitter). Among these services, only YouTube has a user base comparable to WhatsApp in India.

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