During the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the forthcoming state polls, Facebook, Google and Twitter will work with the Election Commission to monitor political advertisements and publicity material on their platforms. During the poll campaign, they will look out for fake news and block them if they happened to find any malicious or objectionable content.
The Election Commission has had interactions with the three companies over the past few months. Over the meeting they confirmed to observe a 48-hour “silence period” prior to polling and ensure no political advertisements are put up online during this time.
The companies have conveyed to the commission that all sponsored content in favour of a political party, political leader or candidate will flag the concerned sponsor and the amount paid for posting the content on Facebook, WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), Google or Twitter.
The companies have assured the EC that they will self-censor political content to identify posts that are partisan and which can disturb a level-playing field or involve negative campaigning, fake news, personal attacks and inflammatory content. The decision of the social media companies to screen and block negative political advertisements is completely voluntary.
Apart from blocking objectionable publicity material and advertisements, they will even flag such content to the EC where necessary. This will be the practice through 12 days of the 14-day campaigning window and political advertisements and posts will be prohibited in the 48 hours prior to polling.
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