Don’t let in malicious content, EC tells social media

The Election Commission has said the guidelines have been issued to social media sites as part of its broad efforts to address the problem of paid news.

The Election Commission has directed content managers of social networking sites to make sure that candidates do not post anything violative of the model code of conduct.

In a communication to major social networking sites, the EC has issued detailed guidelines for political advertisements that include obtaining certification for contents before putting them in the public domain.

The guidelines will be applicable to a range of Internet-based social media including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia.

Expenditure

The networking sites have been asked to maintain expenditure incurred by political parties and individual candidates, and ensure that the content displayed by them is not “unlawful or malicious or violative of the model code.”

The guidelines have been issued as part of the EC’s efforts to address the problem of paid news.

“We have told the social networking sites to take pre-certification from Media Certification and Monitoring Committees at the district and State levels,” EC Director Dhirender Ojha said, addressing a workshop on the media’s role in the electoral process.