Mumbai: The Election Commission (EC) on Friday informed the of its willingness to stop paid political content and advertisements on social media 48 hours prior to the polling day. The EC has, however, said it would do so only if the HC passed any orders.
A division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Nitin Jamdar was further informed that the EC would be strictly implementing all its previous notifications and norms to regulate political ads on the social media, especially during the election.
The move follows the bench’s directions, asking the EC to clarify its stand on the issue of paid political content and ads. EC counsel Pradeep Rajagopal said, “We are aware that specific norms are required to govern the social media ads, especially during the election. We will implement all our norms to ensure free and fair election.”
“We will also issue directions keeping in mind, the submissions by other parties in the matter. If the court orders to prohibit display of such ads on social media prior to the 48-hour period, we will implement it,” Rajgopal added. The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by lawyer Sagar Suryavanshi, seeking directions to the EC to regulate fake news in the form of paid political ads on social media.
The PIL had also urged the court to direct the EC to prohibit people, including politicians or private individuals, from posting advertisements related to politics or polls, or paid political content on the social media platform, such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, 48 hours before election day.