Attempts to sway polls with tech biggest challenge: CEC

Money is now being given into the hands of these (tech) firms who are trying to manipulate the margins to change the election outcomes...

OP RAWAT, poll panel chief

NEWDELHI: Attempts to sway election outcomes by manipulating voters through technological interventions have emerged as the biggest challenge for the electoral process, OP Rawat, the chief election commissioner, has said.

The head of the Election Commission (EC), which is prepping for the elections in five states and the general elections next year, said the panel is bracing to tackle the challenge but admits at not being equipped with the wherewithal to do so.

In an interview to HT, Rawat says that political leaders have moved from bribing voters with money or freebies to handing out cash, to parties seeking the help of big data companies for analysis and targeted communication on social media to spin elections.

“Instead of direct bribing of voters, it is now moving to technology and big data firms and ser- vices like targeted communication on social media and analysis on where to focus so as to tilt the voting behaviour in a party’s favour…all these sophisticated techniques, which may cost a bomb, are being resorted to,” Rawat said.

Concerns about data harvesting by companies were set off after social media giant Facebook and Cambridge Analytica were accused of misusing personal data of tens of millions people to try and influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote in the UK.

Following these allegations, the EC reviewed their ties with the social media platforms that were being used to publicise the panel’s outreach to enrol voters.

Rawat says that while the EC has strengthened mechanisms to prevent distribution of cash and freebies during elections, it will need “to brainstorm to come up with imaginative steps” to counter data mining and misuse.