Social media platforms which collaborate with the Election Commission will now have to follow a ‘code of conduct’ to ensure that their user data remains protected from manipulation which could adversely affect elections.
Highly-placed sources in the poll panel said today that the body’s social media unit met yesterday and decided to draft the ‘code of conduct’. The platforms which do not follow the proposed code will not get to partner with the EC. The decision was taken in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica episode.
Observing that utilisation of social media cannot be stopped due to instances of ‘aberrations’, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat had said yesterday that Facebook would remain the poll panel’s social media partner during the Karnataka assembly elections. He also said the social media cell of the EC would go into the issue of App of politicians and political parties sharing user data without the users’ consent.
