Election Commission issues social media guidelines for candidates

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the schedule for the 17th Lok Sabha elections, which will be held in seven phases beginning April 11.
According to the Election Commission, the candidates will have to furnish the details of their social media accounts at the time of filing their nominations.
Arora said all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification.The Election Commission has asked Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to verify all the political advertisements coming from various political parties.

A grievance officer has also been appointed to take complaints related to these advertisements on all social media platforms, informed the CEC during the press conference.
All expenditure on campaigning advertisements on social media is to be included in the election expenditure account, said Arora.
The CEC informed that IT giants have promised to take action against hate speech.
Stringent monitoring of all events on election days will be done using information technology, he said.
He also mentioned the C-Vigil app which was launched last year by the election commission. The app will help citizens to confidentially report any violation of the election code of conduct and any malpractices.
In a decision taken earlier, EC had also asked political parties to "desist from displaying photographs of defence personnel" against the backdrop of a picture showing a hoarding with images of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as well as leaders of a party.
The instructions came after the photograph of a hoarding displaying pictures of the IAF pilot as well as senior BJP leaders were circulated on social media and came to the EC's notice. However, it was not known where the hoarding had been put up.