$300M for religious hate speech and low quality deepfakes?

An article in Al Jazeera recently quoted a figure of $300M as the estimated market size for political consultancies in India ¹ (more notes/highlights from the article on SochMuch):

The ability of these graduates — readily available — to manage and analyse enormous amounts of voter data makes them a valuable resource for political consultancies. The latter’s market size, estimated to be about $300m, is set to grow with individual candidates and national and regional parties looking for their expertise.

And instead of political discourse about policies and issues, we’re dealing in religious hate speech and low quality deepfakes ².