Internet And Mobile Association of India told to monitor social media during elections

A committee formed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to give recommendations on Section 126 of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1951 has suggested industry body IAMAI to be tasked with the job of monitoring the role of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp during elections.

The 10-member committee, chaired by senior deputy election commissioner Umesh Sinha, has also recommended that the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) should monitor cases related to violations by the intermediaries (social media platforms in this case), sources in ECI said.

“Panel’s view was that IAMAI may be asked to set up a monitoring committee to periodically study actions of intermediaries with regard to their conduct in election related issues. This is besides its recommendation on these platforms to commit towards facilitating transparency in political advertisements by clearly labelling them,” one of the sources revealed.