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Journalism of Courage
More than two and half weeks after the Election Commission’s social media code of ethics went into effect and just before the first “silence period” comes into force, Facebook has pushed back against one of five takedown requests from EC regarding a post criticising Prime Minister Modi’s response to Wing Commander Abhinandan’s capture.
All five posts originated with the Karnataka Election Commission and were sent to Facebook between April 3 and 5. Facebook responded to EC saying that four posts violated their own community standards but asked EC to provide more information regarding which law the fifth post violates. For the four violating posts, Facebook took down the posts within three to four hours, according to an official in Karnataka EC.
Three of the five takedown requests were posts attacking the BJP, one was against Congress, and one was against Janata Dal (Secular). A representative from JD(S) alerted Karnataka EC about the post attacking their party while the other four came from within the Karnataka EC.
The EC stated to Facebook that four of the posts, including the one that has not been taken down, were “conducing to public mischief,” sources say. Facebook and the Central Election Commission did not respond to comment.
On March 21, the EC and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), representing six social media platforms, enacted a “Voluntary Code of Ethics” for the Lok Sabha polls, as part of which the social media firms will process EC requests for takedowns within three hours.
However, over the weekend, EC officials met with IAMAI to discuss a recent Bombay court hearing that had directed the EC to consider a shorter takedown limit during the “silence period” of 48 hours before polling.
IAMAI told EC that if the court pushes on the matter in the next hearing, the social media platforms can process requests for takedowns within two hours.
The Karnataka EC initially sent the takedown requests directly to Facebook and included only the screenshots of the posts. After being alerted on the correct procedure, the state officers re-sent their requests to the Central Election Commission, who then sent the orders to Facebook.
The Karnataka EC is also tracking official political accounts that pay to “promote” or “boost” other posts on Facebook. The teams have found 157 of these cases. This type of payment is not included in the EC expenditure process and was cited as a point in need of clarification in the discussions between the social media companies and EC.
The Karnataka EC has three teams with personnel focused on social media. One team, which handles general complaints from the public, has three social media officers. Another team sits in the state information department with four social media officers and a third group sits in the Chief Electoral office of Karnataka and has hired external consultants to aid the process.
Along with the five requests to social media companies, these Karnataka social media monitoring teams have also recommended 11 cases to District Election Officers and/or Returning Officers and have not acted on 84 incoming complaints.
TikTok has not received any EC takedown requests, according to a spokesperson. Twitter and ShareChat did not respond to comment. Google declined to provide numbers of requests received.
