Ever since the Lok Sabha elections 2019 campaigns started, the enormity and impressions to eradicate the social trolling, abusive comments and other violating terms were taken on a high note.
With just two days for elections, major social media companies have agreed to take down objectionable content which violates the 48-hour media silence rule in only two hours, as per the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) rule.
The body has requested the election watchdog to extend the time frame for three hours to let companies acknowledge the violations. Further, it also requested the commission to suspend the take down time limit so that social media networks may seek certain cases data like requests that lack URLs, or who do not follow a lawful process.
As per the media reports, the commission has called the social media officials on April, 13 to address on this issue.
The process comes in after the petition was filed in the court in October seeking to take down the three-hour time limit as it could pique the object of obstructing political advertising in 48 hours.
Understanding the issues elevated, the commission had asked social media platforms to reduce the time constraint to two hours.
Is Social Media Platform Facing Troubles?
Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram- all the essential platforms have been facing struggles in India by the Indian government’s strict attitude on hindering the spread of fake news.
As the Internet is widely used in India, especially during the elections became common. The significant political ads are spread mainly during the election season with an increase in the spread of fake news.
According to the reports, it was observed that Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister who leads Telugu Desam Party(TDP) is driving in a race of spending on political ads which is followed by the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The commission body had directed its state-level bodies to designate nodal officers to keep a check on the spread of fake news, rebel speech and other unlawful content across social media companies.
IAMAI along with social media companies in March had submitted the Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Election 2019 to Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra- Election Commissioners and to Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner.
