Newspapers as new Brahmins:

Election Commission of India has mandated that no political advertisement would be permissible without proper KYC (Know Your Customer). Similarly Government of India has also called upon the Social Media Platforms to ensure that their platform is not used to influence public opinion. In this background I recently published my first political book: India 2019: Will Narendra Modi Win?: (A political analysis of democracy in India) Kindle Edition

I approached Quora for advertisement of book and the campaign was automatically blocked. I sought a review with following request:

“The ad does not promote any political party. It relates to political analysis of elections of India. Please check the sample of book. Therefore it does not fall under the restriction of ECI. Further I have clearly declared that I am not related to any political party. Pleas review and approve.”

This was the reply:

“Thanks for contacting us. Unfortunately, your ads account was suspended by Quora’s ad review team for promoting restricted content. Specifically, the contents in the book discuss what to expect for India in 2019 and future elections. They’ve deemed that circulating the book on Quora is likely to influence outcomes, which is against our ad guidelines when it comes to circulating non-political, neutral ads on products/services. I’m sorry that Quora won’t be able to approve and run your ads at this time.

If you would prefer your account be un-suspended, you are welcome to delete violating campaigns. They will extend a 1-time courtesy in lifting the suspension off an account. As a heads up though, secondary suspensions won’t be considered.”

Ignore the arrogance smacked in second paragraph but look at the reasoning. It is not about KYC at all. It is about influencing the election results. Good.

Now quora has permitted the news papers to peddle their lies and propaganda as advertisements. The reason the book was written was to place things in clear perspective and to exercise my freedom of expression. However the newspapers are new “Brahmins” who have monopoly to reveal the truth. If the policy of quora is not to influence elections, it must ban the news papers as well?

However the quora lied and denied that it runs newspaper ads. This is the reply:

If you’re curious about runnings ads on something else (ads by newspapers), please provide the website or landing page you’re interested in advertising here. We can pass it off to our review team for a decision. If you’re asking whether we serve newspaper ads, then the answer is that Quora does not run newspaper ads (we only serve digital ads).

The best way to avoid a question is to deflect it. Of course they run advertisements of newspapers’ web sites not the paper. Here is the proof of advertisement of Financial Express:

Disclaimer: The term Brahmin has been used as ‘Varna’ and not caste. Please read my above book which clarifies this and debacles the myth of caste and abyss of it’s political misuse.