Twitter suspends fake Election Commission accounts

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India, which is yet to create a Twitter handle of its own, has got the social media platform to suspend two fake Twitter accounts using EC’s name.

According to an EC spokesperson, the suspended accounts “were running in the name of ECI and misleading public..so media division of commission asked Twitter to take the decisive action”.

The suspended handles went by the names @DalitFederation and @ElectionComm. When TOI tried to access the said handles, Twitter flashed the message “Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter rules”.

EC incidentally does not have any presence on Twitter, though it does operate a Facebook handle. According to a senior EC functionary, the Commission has avoided opening an account on Twitter as it does not have the manpower, a dedicated team of professionals or media budget to handle requests and grievances that are likely to flood it once it registers its presence on Twitter. Also, this might end up distracting its officers and staff from their central responsibility of conducting free and fair elections.

However, EC has authorised the state chief electoral officers to create a Twitter account of their own. Recently, even the ECI spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan created a Twitter handle - @SpokespersonECI - to update the media and public of developments related to the Election Commission.

EC has otherwise been in talks with Twitter and other social media companies like Google and Facebook to help it track fake news and monitor poll expenditure on social media advertising and publicity.