Social media platforms have to build safety wall to avoid

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Wednesday insisted that social media platforms have to build a safety wall to avoid their misuse to quickly spread the menace of misrepresentation and misinterpretation of facts. "At times, social media, if not harnessed properly, can have its own implications.

It is a great enabler. The medium has to be utilised for ECI's SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation Programme) campaigns on voter education, enrollment drive, ethical voting and countering misrepresentations about EVMs," Arora said.

He was addressing a press conference at the end of the fourth General Assembly of Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) here. The CEC added, "Social media, ultimately, has to create safety walls - the sooner the better." He expressed concern over the menace of misinterpretation and misrepresentation spreading quickly across many users at the click of a button.

"It is worrisome and that is the flip side of the social media and it is also emerging as a potential danger, as it caninfluence social unrest and conflict amongst ethnic, regional,caste etc," Arora said. In the absence of a regulatory framework, the CEC said the Election Commission of India six months before the onset of Lok Sabha elections had started engaging with the social media platforms.

Realising their importance, the A-WEB General Assembly had invited Twitter India, Facebook India, Internet and MobileOperators Association of India, and also the Regional Director, Asia Pacific, International Foundation for Electoral System to give their presentations. To a question, Arora stressed upon the need for a legislative framework in India for social media and said he expected a report in this regard on the aspects of social media from the Parliamentary Standing committee on IT to make social media platforms more accountable.

Replying to a query, the CEC said a robust electoral roll has been a vision of the Election Commission of India it has taken up various initiatives, including integrating the entire country on the ERO-net and creating the National Voter Service portal. "As we are talking, already there is a massive electors' verification programme going on throughout the length and breadth of the country.

On a pan India basis, the programme started on September 1, 2019. It will continue till October 15, 2019," Arora said. To a question on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), Arora emphasised that the machines can malfunction, but cannot be tampered with.

He took a dig at those who look at EVMs with suspicion, saying it was only the sundry thinktanks and others who keep on raising this issue time and again for reasons best known to them. "Sometimes our retired colleagues too join the brigade, again for reasons best known to them," Arora said.

On the status of 19 lakh people left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Arora said they will remain voters in India until the foreigner tribunals decide on it. "Till the foreigner tribunals decide, they are voters," he said..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)