Congress debunks claims it paid influencers to oppose AI Impact Summit

The Congress on Friday strongly denied allegations that it paid social media influencers to oppose the recent AI Impact Summit in Delhi, describing the claims as a fabricated narrative pushed by the BJP’s IT cell in the aftermath of a disruptive Youth Congress protest at the event.

In a video statement in Hindi and English, Congress social media department head Supriya Shrinate said the party had been subjected to a “witch-hunt” over the past 48 hours through what she termed planted fake news.

“It was falsely alleged that the Congress party and the Indian Youth Congress paid Instagram influencers to oppose the AI Summit. We categorically deny this. No one was paid, and this claim is completely false,” she said.

The controversy follows a high-visibility protest by Youth Congress activists inside the summit venue in New Delhi last week. A group of protestors had entered the event wearing jackets and later removed them to reveal slogan-bearing T-shirts before launching a shirtless demonstration that referenced unemployment concerns and raised questions linked to the Epstein files to highlight PM Narendra Modi's 'compromised' status as claimed by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

The protest briefly disrupted proceedings and drew swift police intervention, with participants detained soon after. The visual nature of the demonstration ensured that it quickly gained traction online, placing the summit under an unexpected political spotlight.

In the days that followed, a parallel narrative emerged on social media, alleging that anti-summit content circulating online — particularly reels by Instagram influencers — had been orchestrated and funded by the Congress.

Shrinate rejected this outright and suggested the story collapsed once legal scrutiny was hinted at. “The moment legal action was mentioned, many influencers panicked and deleted their videos,” she said, adding that none of the individuals involved had disclosed who had allegedly approached them.

“None of them ever revealed the name or number of the person who contacted them. These influencers are part of a pro-Modi, pro-BJP ecosystem and regularly promote BJP narratives,” she claimed. Calling the episode politically manufactured, she said: “This fake story originated from the BJP IT cell.”

Shrinate also argued that the influencer controversy had diverted attention from what she described as substantive issues with the summit itself. “People also know the truth about the AI summit: serious mismanagement, equipment stolen, no stable internet, and a Chinese robot at an Indian innovation event,” she said.

Raising further questions, she asked how foreign-origin devices had been allowed into a flagship technology showcase without scrutiny. “How did the Chinese robot and the Korean ball enter the summit? Shockingly, no inquiry has been conducted,” she added.

The Congress leader also took aim at sections of the media that had amplified the influencer-payment allegations, urging them to now examine the disappearance of the videos and the circumstances surrounding their creation. She said key questions remained unanswered: why the reels were deleted, who commissioned them, and who may have instructed their removal.

With PTI inputs