Counter fake narratives fiercely: CEC to poll officials

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday cautioned poll officials over the rising tide of false narratives on social media, urging them to proactively counter the spread of misinformation.

Addressing the officials, he emphasised that passive monitoring is no longer enough.

He stated that administrative teams must engage swiftly to neutralise fake news before it distorts public perception.

Defending the integrity of the democratic process, Kumar pointed to the record-breaking voter turnouts in recent assembly elections as a definitive counter-narrative to critics.

He noted that the historic levels of public participation serve as concrete proof of the deep trust Indian electors place in the country’s electoral framework.

The Election Commission is expected to scale up its digital fact-checking and communication cells to handle narrative challenges ahead of upcoming electoral cycles.

The poll authority had organised its third conference for media and communication officers, bringing together media nodal officers and social media nodal officers, senior officers from the state departments of public relations from various districts of the participating states.

Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi said that in today’s digital world, AI, deepfakes, synthetic content with an intent to mislead and even mischievous content are spread by motivated actors to erode trust in institutions.

He urged officials to counter such attempts based on the rules, instructions and guidelines of the commission.