As student protests spread across India, Narendra Modi turns to Reels, swapping his trademark cinematic videos for self-recorded messages aimed at Gen Z
India’s short-video market was reshaped when Instagram expanded Reels after the TikTok ban, and later coverage found that Reels had largely filled TikTok’s place in India. Modi’s shift matters because it brings a leading political communicator into the same format that became central to India’s post-TikTok social-media landscape.
The move also arrives against prior reporting that Modi’s government had pressed social platforms over speech and dissent, making the choice of Meta’s consumer video product consequential beyond a routine change in campaign style.
First-order effects
Modi’s public messaging shifts from polished, cinematic production toward self-recorded Reels designed to speak more directly to Gen Z during the protests.
Instagram Reels becomes the immediate distribution channel for that outreach, giving Meta’s short-video product a prominent political use case in India.
Second-order effects
The move raises the importance of short-form video fluency for political communications teams seeking to compete for attention among younger audiences.
It may intensify scrutiny of how Meta’s platform policies and moderation practices operate when a major political figure uses Reels amid public dissent.
Third-order effects
If political leaders increasingly adopt Reels as a primary communications format, India’s post-TikTok short-video market could become more deeply embedded in political discourse as well as entertainment and creator activity.
That would increase the strategic weight of platform governance: rules on visibility, moderation and access would have greater consequences for public debate on a Meta-owned service.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift from broadcast-style political messaging to platform-native, short-form video aimed at younger audiences.
Hope, Modi ji keeps posting self recorded candid videos/reels! It's so much better than the heavily edited perfectly shot garbage IT cell keeps posting!
PM Modi's Second Video in 24 hrs / Vertical Format on @instagram PM Modi creates a new world record with most views on a reel in 24 hours (over 303 million right now) The earlier record was 300 million views PM Modi also gained around 1 million followers on Instagram overnight af…
While the GenZ protest is spreading in India, Modi has directed his ministers to increase their presence on Instagram. This is guy is mentally challenged.