Collector and District Election Officer A. Md. Imtiaz asked all the political parties and candidates to get the digital content certified by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) before posting them across the social media platforms.
Mr. Imtiaz said that the Election Commission is watching Wikipedia, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, applications, bulk message services and other platforms which are part of social media and candidates using these for campaigning have to follow the guidelines laid down by the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
“Content on social media will be considered on the lines of content being aired on electronic media. The candidates have to produce the content before the district MCMC and get it certified. Also, the expenditure incurred on social media management teams and content production teams will be considered as election expenditure,” Mr. Imtiaz said at a press conference here.
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Mr. Imtiaz said that the social media monitoring committee at the CEO’s office took notice of some cases of serious violations and Returning Officers were asked to take further action. The committee was closely watching the content being posted on the social media platforms, he said.
Also, election-related content posted by individual users or fan pages would be observed and referred to the cyber cell for further investigation if they are objectionable or violating the code. So far three cases were registered in the district for violation of the code on social media and notices sent to the respective candidates, he said.
Violations are categorised into party level, private life, caste, corruption and public meetings. Comments against caste, community, group and language will be viewed seriously and stringent action will be taken.
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Many code violations
Mr. Imtiaz said that the district witnessed a huge number of violations of the MCC so far.
“About ₹2 crore unaccounted cash and unaccounted gold worth ₹1.8 crore has been seized. We have received 150 complaints through cVigil application and most of them are about banners and other poll material. We haven’t received any complaint of cash distribution so far,” he said.
About 200 cases of MCC violation were registered against candidates and others so far and a huge number of vehicles, including cars and tractors, were seized as most of the violations took place during nomination rallies, where an excess number of vehicles and other materials were used.
He said 33,201 banners, posters and wall writings have been removed and about 17,000 statues were defaced as part of the implementation of the election code in the district and 33,136 litres of illicit liquor was seized in 260 cases and 226 persons were arrested.