This episode focuses on the measures taken by ECI and social media platforms to regulate the political propaganda, political campaigns, political content and political advertisements on social media platforms. This episode also talks about the status of the implementation of the Supreme Court of India’s 13th February order.

Intro (00:08)

 

Welcome back to another episode of ADR Speaks! My name is Nandini Raj and I am a Sr. Program Associate at ADR.

 

Today’s episode focuses on the measures taken by ECI and social media platforms to regulate the political propaganda, political campaigns, political content and political advertisements on social media platforms. This episode also talks about the status of the implementation of the Supreme Court of India’s 13th February order.

 

With the increasing flow of fake news, paid news and hate speech to elevate the political propaganda, it becomes paramount to monitor political activities on social media. Prior to the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, Election Commission of India (ECI), along with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and social media giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter and other platforms, adopted a “Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Election 2019” to regulate the misuse of social media.  The code was also applicable in the Bihar Assembly Elections 2020. Additionally, ECI also directed all the candidates contesting in 2019 elections to furnish their social media handles in their affidavit.

 

(01:28)

 

Following are a few measures taken by ECI and some social media giants under Voluntary Code of Ethics:

  • ECI together with social media platforms have developed a notification mechanism. The electoral body notifies about the violation under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, and on other matters, to the social media platforms. Post which an action is taken on such violations within three hours.
  • They also made it compulsory for all political advertisers to submit pre-certificates issued by ECI and/or Media Certification& Monitoring Committee (MCMC) of the ECI in relation to election advertisements that feature names of political parties, candidates for the Bihar Assembly Elections. Further, social media platforms have to expeditiously process/action paid political advertisements lawfully notified to them by the ECI that do not feature such certification.

 

(02:35)

 Other measures taken by ECI are:

 1. Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 prohibits displaying any election matter by television or similar apparatus, during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of a poll in a constituency. "Election matter" means any matter intended or calculated to influence or affect the result of an election.

2. TV/Radio channels and cable networks/internet website/social media platforms should ensure that the contents of the programmes telecasted/broadcasted/displayed by them during the period of 48 hours referred to in Section 126 do not contain any material, views/appeals by panelists/participants that may be construed as promoting the prospect of any particular party or candidate or influencing/ affecting the result of the election.

3. Violation of the provisions of Section 126 is punishable with imprisonment upto a period of two years, or with fine or both.

4. Section 126A of the RPA  also prohibits conduct of Exit poll and dissemination of its results during the period mentioned therein, i.e. the hour fixed for commencement of poll and half an hour after the time fixed for close of poll.

5. ECI issues notices for violation of the MCC in almost every election.  Once a notice is issued, the person or party must reply in writing — either accepting fault and tendering an unconditional apology, or rebutting the allegation. However, the Model Code of Conduct is only a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. It is not enforceable by law and therefore the candidate cannot be disqualified for its violation except in the extreme cases like a candidate using money/liquor to influence votes/bribery/freebies or trying to divide voters in the name of religion or caste.

 

 

(05:00)

 

In such cases, certain provisions of the MCC can be enforced through invoking corresponding provisions in other statutes. ECI can order registration of a criminal case against the candidate under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and Representation of the People Act, 1951.

 

In a white paper called Stopping Abuse released by WhatsApp in early 2019, the company revealed that they were deleting around 2 million accounts to tackle fake news.  These accounts had bulk or automated behaviour which meant they sent high volumes of messages. WhatsApp also launched CheckPoint Tipline which allows its users to submit suspicious content and know its authenticity. In 2 months of CheckPoint’s launch, it received about 75,000 authentication requests from the users.

 

During General Elections 2019, Twitter deleted around 220 tweets by May, Facebook deleted about 702 pages, accounts and groups (as reported on 01 April 2019). About 60 Facebook political advertisement posts were found during the silent period. These contents were taken down on the grounds of violation of Code of Ethics, communal hate, junk news and bypassing anti-spam.

 

(06:36)

 

Needless to say that crores were spent on social media advertisements by the political parties during the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 and that political advertising is a big money-making business for the social media giants.  The recent revelation of social media giants being biased towards certain political ideologies denies a level playing field to all the political parties in reaching out to the electorates. Some other reasons are:

 

a.) the stark difference in the number of followers of national political parties and regional political parties on social media platforms

b.) one of the most looked-up online campaigning strategies is virtual rally which is costly. Richer political parties have an advantage over the financially weak political parties and independent candidates

c.) the changing algorithm of social media platforms which limits the organic reach and the absence of a ceiling on the election expenditure by political parties pave the route for the financially stronger political parties to reach out to maximum electorates.

 

On 13th February 2020, the Supreme Court of India made it mandatory for political parties at the Central and State election levels to upload on their website detailed information regarding candidates with pending criminal cases. Furthermore, to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. SC also directed the political parties to publicise such information on official social media platforms of the political parties, including Facebook & Twitter. Bihar was the first state to see the implementation of this order. During the Bihar Assembly Elections, only five political parties out of 187, had listed the reasons for fielding candidates with criminal background. Common reasons listed by these political parties for fielding candidates with criminal background were:

  • Popularity
  • Social worker
  • Educational background
  • Cases filed due to political vendetta by rival political parties
  • Cases are old
  • Good effort put in for handling Covid-19 crisis

Some other observations by ADR are:

  • Most of the political parties submitted the reasons post the deadline.
  • Most of the reasons given by political parties were not rational and justified as clearly directed by the Supreme Court in its order dated 13th February 2020.
  • It is to be noted that out of 187 political parties participating in these elections, there was a large number of political parties which did not have a website.

Order dated 13th February 2020 was the second attempt by SC towards decriminalisation of Indian politics. A similar order was passed on  25th September 2018 but it was also blatantly defied by the political parties. The question which begs the answer is why is it difficult for political parties to field candidates with a clean and honest background. 

 

(Conclusion: 09:58)


In conclusion, it can be said that social media giants are in the quest to reach the last man but it is paramount that the Voluntary Code of Ethics should be strengthened with every upcoming state assembly election. More importantly, it is crucial that the SC’s order dated 13th February 2020 be seriously implemented in the upcoming elections, and ECI and social media platforms must work together to ensure its implementation.

 

Well, that’s all for today’s episode. I hope you all found this useful and interesting. If you like our work, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on our website: adrindia.org and don’t forget to write to us at [email protected] with your feedback. We will be back next week with another amazing episode. Please stay tuned and thank you for listening.

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