Bytedance adds fuel to India’s ethnic and religious fires

In what is becoming an unfortunately common occurrence, yet another Bytedance app is receiving criticism for its problematic content overseas.

The platform is Helo, the Beijing-based super-unicorn’s news app for Indian regional languages. A recent investigation by the Hindustan Times revealed that Helo, as well as its Xiaomi-backed, India-based competitor ShareChat, are “rife with misinformation and political propaganda.”

The article cited a number of Helo posts, including one saying that the BBC had declared the prominent Indian National Congress the “fourth most corrupt political party in the world.” (It hadn’t.) Another falsely claimed a well-known politician in the state of Rajasthan had suggested that India should help neighboring rival Pakistan clear its debt rather than invest in the country’s newly-constructed Statue of Unity monument. (He didn’t.) At the time of writing, neither had been removed from the Helo platform.

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