KATHMANDU, May 2: The Election Commission (EC) has warned of taking stern action against those involved in spreading misinformation and disinformation and hate speech against political parties and election candidates on social networking sites in view of the upcoming local level elections.
While noting that such incidents are on the rise in digital spaces, the EC urged every one not to misuse social networking sites to assassinate characters and spread rumors as such acts likely to impact the outcome of elections.
False news travels faster on social media
In order to monitor the use of social networking sites in the election, the EC has formed a task force, comprising cyber experts of security agencies.
The EC, however, has expected that misuse of social media would be reduced with its stern warning that no activities that affect election outcome would be allowed. The Election Code of Conduct, 2078 BS has stated that if the social networking sites were used by ignoring the election code of conduct, EC would take action as per Section 23 of Election Commission Act, 2073, and Election (Crime and Punishment) Act, 2073, according to EC Spokesperson and Joint Secretary Shaligram Sharma Poudel.
In addition to this, the EC has initiated a process to contact the offices of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Viber and Google in a bid to effectively regulate social networking sites as per Election Code of Conduct, 2078. Even the Nepali Embassies in India, China, and the US have been directed via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to establish contact with such social media and cooperate for curbing spread of mis/disinformation.
(RSS)
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