ResearchPro International Multidisciplinary Journal

Indian democracy increasingly confronts the intertwined pressures of ubiquitous social media, the industrialization of fake news, and deepening political polarization. This study synthesizes recent Indian and comparative evidence to map causal pathways linking platform design, incentive structures, and user psychology to downstream civic outcomes. We highlight how algorithmic curation, homophily, and attention economies generate selective exposure, amplify affective polarization, and reward emotionally charged misinformation at scale. Drawing on election periods and everyday discourse, we situate India’s experience within a global landscape while foregrounding distinctive features: multilingual information ecologies, the dominance of mobile-first private messaging, uneven digital literacy, and heterogeneous regulatory capacity. We then evaluate the effectiveness and trade-offs of current responses, including fact-check partnerships, platform moderation, India’s IT Rules, and court-driven remedies, alongside media-literacy initiatives. Finally, we outline a research and policy agenda that prioritizes transparency mandates for recommender systems, interoperable provenance standards, rapid response protocols during high-salience events, and curriculum-embedded critical digital literacy. The paper argues that mitigating polarization without suppressing pluralism requires a layered approach that aligns platform incentives with public interest, strengthens independent institutions, and equips citizens to navigate high-velocity information environments. By integrating insights across communication studies, political science, behavioral science, and technology policy, the study clarifies mechanisms, evaluates evidence, and proposes pragmatic, democratic safeguards suited to India’s scale and diversity. We propose measurement strategies combining audits, trace data, surveys, and field experiments across diverse states.