Election Commission watch on social media campaigns

Saibal Gupta, TNN, Mar 6, 2016, Kolkata: In the forthcoming assembly polls, all candidates have to share their web details so that the Election Commission can keep tabs on their campaigns and social media activities.

EC officials have met the heads of web companies and asked them to provide information if they find anything objectionable. "They have a better monitoring system and we have asked them to keep us posted so that we can check everything that is going on in social networking sites," an officer said.

The EC started monitoring social networking sites in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and is taking it a notch higher, making candidates accountable on the social media for the first time. With the poll panel keeping a watch, candidates have to watch their word and adhere to the model code on the web as well. It's also significant considering the recent controversies across the country over Facebook posts and Tweets.

While filing their nomination papers, candidates will have to declare the number of Facebook pages, Twitter handles and Instagram accounts they have, say sources. They will also have to give details of their web pages or websites and specify if they are using any other web mode for campaigning.

"In today's world, particularly in urban and semi-urban areas, social media and networking sites have become very strong mediums of communication. The commission is keen to know the nature of the campaign on these sites and if candidates are trying to spread hatred, lies or anything with communal overtones through these mediums. The commission will handle such issues very strictly and prosecute cases under the IT Act," an EC official said. Apart from this, candidates have to announce how much they spent on web campaign while submitting their accounts details to the commission.

It was in the last Lok Sabha poll that EC started tracking money being spent by political parties on social media campaigns. It kept a watch on fake profiles and posts. "Political parties have every right to campaign in any form they like but it should create any kind of tension among people or lead to misunderstandings. We are just trying to make things more rational," the officer said.

The EC has created a special cell to keep real-time watch on social networking sites. It plans to hire IT experts who will help district level committees check misuse of social media.