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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | EC cautions social media giants against malicious poll content -Ajmer Singh

EC cautions social media giants against malicious poll content -Ajmer Singh

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published Published on Nov 25, 2013   modified Modified on Nov 25, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: With the Congress and the BJP hammering away at each other in the ongoing assembly contests that will set the stage for national polls next year, the Election Commission of India wants to make sure that social media and online platforms run by Google, Facebook and Twitter won't be used to breach the code of conduct that governs candidates and political parties. The commission's key concerns relate to malicious content and exceeding the campaign expense limit.

The Election Commission, which summoned the social media companies to a meeting last week, directed them to cooperate in monitoring content. They were asked to set up a mechanism that would help prevent the posting of material that has the potential of vitiating the election atmosphere, according to Election Commission officials who are aware of the development and didn't want to be named. If such content is posted, the mechanism should also allow for its speedy removal, they said.

"It is difficult to monitor and track content on social media or internet sites, since the servers of internet majors are based out of USA," said one of the officials cited above. "EC has asked social media giants to cooperate for compliance of code of conduct, pre-certification of advertisement on web and monitor malicious content."

The companies concerned declined to comment and referred ET to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for an official response.

"The meeting we attended was a sensitising meeting on the model code of conduct with some legal and corporate affairs representatives of internet companies who are members of IAMAI," said Subho Roy, president of the grouping and one of those present at the November 18 meeting. "The Election Commission representatives explained to us the model code of conduct, its importance during the last 48 hours of the election, the pre-certified advertisements and why they were important in accounting of the candidate's expenses. They also wanted to understand from us what are the current methods of removing illegal content from websites under existing laws. The Election Commission also assured us that at no point there would be any attempt to censor social media."

The commission has classified social media in five types - collaborative projects such as Wikipedia; blogs and micro blogs such as Twitter; content communities such as Google-owned YouTube; social networking sites such as Facebook; and games and apps.

"We have received many complaints about misuse of social media platforms, and it is becoming unmanageable, so all these sites shall now be strictly monitored and asked to comply with ECI instructions," an official said.

According to Election Commission guidelines, "Legal provisions relating to election campaigning apply to social media in the same manner in which they apply to any other form of election campaigning using any other media."

The social media companies will also need to make sure that any advertising they carry conforms to the rules.

An official said social media companies have been asked to "keep an eye on any breach of model code of conduct, in respect of any party or candidate who post hate messages or create hatred or tension between different castes, communities, religions etc. The social media giants have been directed to ensure pre-certification of advertisement on web/social media (clearance of political advertisement by a committee before being displayed in social media/web by any registered party or by any group or association)."


The Times of India, 25 November, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/EC-cautions-social-media-giants-against-malicious-poll-content/articleshow/26331901.cms


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