The Election Commission will find it a daunting task to check circulation of fake news and hate speech during the upcoming general elections, considering nearly a third of the 900 million voters use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, multiple stakeholders say.
While announcing the election dates on Sunday, EC had said the model code of conduct (MCC) will apply to political advertising and social media content being posted by political parties.
It requires all candidates to disclose their social media accounts to the commission, and include all expenditure on their respective social media campaigns as part of official disclosure.
Dedicated grievance officers appointed by social media firms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and homegrown ShareChat will be mandated to take prompt action against fake news and hate speech circulating on their platform. These companies have also committed to acting on any content reported by the EC, which violates election laws. They will also verify all political advertisements coming from various political parties, with disclosures about their funding sources.
“Most intermediaries (digital platforms) have set up their response teams, which are well prepared to handle takedown requests from the EC,” said Subho Ray, president at Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which is coordinating between various intermediaries and the EC. “It is a formidable task, but intermediaries are committed to rise to the occasion.”
Ray, however, added, “Silence period is especially complicated since campaigns on intermediary platforms are not bound by geography”.
Most stakeholders expect EC and the platforms to face a choppy ride.
Civil society members and political parties pointed out that the MCC does not apply to affiliates, including party supporters, and fan pages on Twitter and Facebook. Also excluded from Sunday’s announcement were the fast-growing social content applications like Helo and TikTok, who have, over the last twelve months acquired popularity in the smaller towns of India.
“EC has directed disclosure of expenditure on political ads but not on third-party contracts that may be posting content on social media on political parties or candidates’ behalf,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of Internet Freedom Foundation. “Misinformation does not happen due to a candidate’s posts or advertisements, but happens through third-party pages, influencers, who may or may not be getting paid.”
Facebook’s ad archive show that most of the political advertising on its platform happened through affiliate campaigns and fan pages commonly referred to as ‘unofficial PACs’ (political action committees). These have almost entirely been excluded from MCC, barring some disclosures they have made to these platforms at the time of the ad spend.
Among the prolific advertisers on Facebook is a page called ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’, which is a front campaign of BJP. The page, the report disclosed, spent over Rs 1.1 crore in February. Another page called Nation With NaMo, also affiliated with BJP, spent over Rs 60 lakh in the same period.
Facebook, which also owns popular messenger app WhatsApp, did not respond to ET’s questionnaire as of press time Monday.
ShareChat said it is “eager and was looking forward to work with the EC to uphold the integrity and legality of social media campaigns by political parties” on its platform.
“The guidelines look good theoretically, but practically it is all a sham,” said New Delhi MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, who is a member of Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team. “Most social media propaganda happens through fake accounts and pages. The ruling party (BJP) is the bully on social media. These rules are meant to harass only the opposition parties,” he alleged.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, in a text message to ET, said, “We welcome this (MCC).”
What is also under question is the sheer scale of election-related content that would be circulating on social platforms. “It is yet to be seen how EC will implement this,” a senior executive of a social media company said on condition of anonymity. “It is for the first time EC is going to monitor social media on this huge scale. I don’t know how EC will monitor individuals paying to promote their posts on social media. It is all up in the air now.”
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