Not cutting ties unless Facebook is guilty: CEC
Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat ( pictured) on Friday said the poll panel would continue to have an association with Facebook, until the latter was proved guilty of any misconduct or impropriety. After the regular election commission meeting, which is held among the three election commissioners every Tuesday and Friday, officials were asked to find out if there was anything amiss in relation with Facebook. Officials are supposed to present a report to the threemember commission at the next meeting on Tuesday.
Officials said thus far they had not found any risk associated with Facebook, which has come under the scanner for allegedly sharing its users’ data with British firm Cambridge Analytica (CA). Rawat said the commission must harness the potential of social medial to reach voters. He also denied sharing any voters’ data with Facebook.
EC tied up with Facebook on June 28, 2017, to launch a nationwide campaign to enroll first-time voters from July 1. It was replicating the experience of chief electoral officers, who had used the social medial for enrolling new voters between 2016 and 2017. “With over 180 million people in India on Facebook, the ‘Register Now’ button is designed to encourage citizens to register themselves with ECI. On July 1, a notification of the voter registration reminder will be sent to people on Facebook in India who are eligible to vote. The reminder will be sent out in 13 languages,” the Commission had announced. After clicking the ‘Register Now’ button, users were re-directed to National Voters’ Services Portal for registration. Though the EC never disclosed the number of voters who registered themselves through Facebook, its official said the number was “minuscule”.