Election bodies expect social media sites to proactively flag fake news: CEC Rajiv Kumar

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar Monday said election management bodies (EMBs) expected social media sites to use their “algorithm power” to proactively flag fake news. He was addressing an international conference for EMBs hosted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the aegis of the United States’ ‘Summit for Democracy’ platform.

He said social media platforms proclaim to have content policies, but added that they do also have the “algorithm power” and a proactive approach to countering fake news would facilitate “credible electoral outcomes”.

“More early or deeper red-flagging of fake news based on known modus operandi and genres is not an unfair expectation from the EMBs”, he said.