ELECTION COMMISSION TO REVIEW TIES WITH FACEBOOK

The Election Commission (EC) is in the process of reviewing its engagement with social media company Facebook, with which it partners on voter awareness initiatives, although they have no formal agreement.

EC and Facebook began engaging with each other in 2017 without any legal framework defining the partnership, an EC official said, asking not to be identified.

There is now a view within the poll panel that it should not partner with any social media platform until a strict code of conduct defining the scope and nature of such partnerships is drafted. On March 27, the commission asked its social media cell to prepare a model code of conduct.

Earlier this week, chief election commissioner OP Rawat told reporters that the commission would continue to partner with Facebook on awareness initiatives, but with “safeguards”.

Concerns arose about EC’s partnership with Facebook after allegations surfaced of data harvesting from the social media company by political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica. Although the commission has said it did not share any data from the electoral rolls with Facebook, it is now reviewing whether its association with the company could have been misused in any way, a second EC official said, also on condition of anonymity.

“There is no formal or legal agreement or Memorandum of Understanding between EC and Facebook. Facebook does not have any access to EC’s database of voters,” former chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi said.

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