Pledge secured from social media platforms on curbing posts that affect poll process: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat Tuesday said a pledge has been secured from social media platforms stating they would curb the flow of posts which adversely affect the election process in the country.

Interacting with reporters here, he said the poll watchdog had made several attempts to curb the misuse of social media during elections.

"We have separately held talks with the national and regional heads of all important social media platforms and secured a pledge from them that they will stop the flow of all such posts that are likely to adversely affect the election process," he said.

Rawat said the expenditure on poll advertisements on social media will be added to the expenses of the candidates. Information would also be collected from the social media officials about the sponsors of such election advertisements.

In response to a question, Rawat said the EC has a strong mechanism in place to review the manifestos of political parties.

"We have made a firm commitment to review the electoral manifesto of all parties according to the Supreme Court's guidelines," he said.

Prior to his interaction with the media, Rawat held a meeting of top officials of police and administration of Indore, Ujjain and Narmadapuram divisions in the state and reviewed the preparations for the election.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao was also present in the meeting along with several senior officials of the ECI.

Rawat expressed confidence that the EC would be successful in conducting free and fair assembly elections across the state on November 28.