Keeping a close watch on political campaigning via social media would be a daunting task for the Election Commission during the ensuing lok Sabha polls. Even as the EC has geared up to keep a vigil on activities of political parties on the social media, the cooperation of social networking websites in monitoring the content remains in question.
The recent case of sudden surge of ‘likes’ on Facebook page of local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal provides a testimony to this fact. Bansal had lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh Police regarding the same. But, the Facebook had rejected the queries put forth by Chandigarh police and had not divulged any details about the same. During the election season, the political parties and politicians have a fierce competition in the cyber world. Eyeing lok Sabha polls, the political parties have already invaded the social networking platforms and are actively campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube to popularise their parties and also, to fuel controversies. On the issue of political campaigning via social media, Director General, Election Commission of India, Akshay Rout said, “The EC has already held a meeting with representatives of various social networking websites.” Akshay said, “As many social networking platforms have their main operational headquarters outside India, there were some concerns regarding this issue. Since, it would not be easy to prevent the posting of material that has a potential of vitiating the election atmosphere, the EC has requested the social networking websites to provide a list of their grievances officers who can be contacted to attend our complaints during polls.” “In case, we receive complaints regarding objectionable content being posted for political gains or any such activity is observed on social media, the EC can directly approach these grievances officers in social networking websites to assist us in removing such content or divulging other details on such violations,” he said. He added, “The social networking websites have accepted our request though we are yet to get the list of these officials.” Admitting that keeping a check on social media content would be challenging, Akshay said this time, the Election Commission, has issued guidelines to the political parties to ensure that the social media is not used to breach the code of conduct. According to the guidelines, “The contesting candidates would have to submit the details of their accounts on social media while filing nominations and would also have to get the certification of such advertisement and other contents to be publicized on their account from Election Commission.” “The expenditure on managing such accounts and publishing the content on these social networking sites would be added in the total election expenditure of contesting candidates during elections,” he added.If any other person has to carry out a publicity campaign for a candidate or party on social media, in that case, such person would also have to get an authorised certificate to this effect. Adding to this, UT Joint Chief Electoral Officer Tilak Raj said, “The UT Election Department had held a meeting with the political parties on Wednesday and the political parties have been apprised about the guidelines. They have been directed to adhere to the guidelines related to campaigning through social media.”