Over 150 cases of fake news reported during Lok Sabha elections: Ravi Shankar Prasad

As many as 154 cases of fake news/false news or misinformation were reported during the recently held general elections, the Union Minister of Law, Communications and Information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha here on Wednesday.

"The Commission had received majority of such cases as complaints from social media nodal officers appointed at Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer," Prasad said in a written reply to Francisco Sardinha, a member from Goa, in the House.

He also said that several social media platforms were directed to remove content spreading fake/false news/misinformation in pursuance of "Voluntary code of ethics."

According to the data released on cases where social media team of the commission has suo-moto reported cases to social media platforms, the highest number of cases (97) came from Twitter. "Over 46 and 11 cases came from Facebook and YouTube respectively," he said in the reply.

The minister also added that tweets spreading misinformation regarding indelible ink was noticed by the social media team of the Commission and the tweets were intended to mislead voters of a specific community.

Replying to Sardinha's query on whether the poll panel had considered banning social media messaging like WhatsApp during elections, Prasad said no such proposal was taken up during the elections.