The most awaited announcement of general elections 2019 dates took place yesterday i.e Sunday (10th march). Along with the election dates Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced the steps the Election Commission will take to monitor social media campaigning.
Here are some major announcement by ECI spokesperson with regards to the use of social media in general elections 2019.
- The CEC informed that social media platforms — Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have said all political advertisements will be certified.
- Twitter, Facebook, and Google will also highlight political ads on their platforms specifically.
- Facebook and Google have also appointed a dedicated grievance officer to receive complaints of any violation of EC guidelines.
- All advertisement on social media will also require pre-certification. All expenditure on campaigning advertisement in social media is to be included in the election expenditure account.
- The [Election] Commission has also asked that print and social media be brought within the ambit of Section 126(1) of the Representation of the People Act so that the concept of ‘silence period’ is honored and opinion polls are restricted
Social media(SM) expert is also going to be part of Media Certification and Monitoring Committee; candidates are required to furnish details of SM accounts; all expenditure on SM campaigning to be part of election expenditure account: CEC Sh Sunil Arora#LokSabhaElection2019 pic.twitter.com/nxdVCIjZ5r
— PIB India (@PIB_India) March 10, 2019
In order to fight the menace of fake news, ECI said all candidates standing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will have to declare their social media accounts to the Election Commission as part of their affidavit.
