It is beyond imagination that political parties in today's world are unaware of the provisions with regard to responsible and ethical use of social media especially when these entities have been seeking votes to run the country in the coming time.
It is a bit unconvincing that the Election Commission after taking cognizance of the certain violations of MCC and the extant legal provisions has issued directions to political parties for responsible and ethical use of social media in election campaigning to ensure level playing field among all stakeholders.
As every citizen is bound to know about each and every law of the land, the same analogy is true for the political parties and their leadership as these should also know the ways and means of using social media responsibly, and the ECI instead of giving sermons or warnings again and again should act stringently against any non-compliance as it is the duty of this constitutional institution as giving warning to one party, a chance to another, and acting against the third can be taken as prejudice, therefore it should ensure that no one breaks the rule and if the same happens, it should act according to norms and the existing law.
Not only this, reportedly, the ECI also warned the parties against misuse of AI based tools to create deep fakes that distort information or propagate misinformation, emphasising the need to uphold the integrity of the electoral process.
The ECI has brought to the notice of political parties the existing legal provisions that govern the regulatory framework against the use of misinformation and impersonation using deep fakes including Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, the Indian Penal Code and framework of the twin acts namely the Representation of People Act, 1950 and 1951 and the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct.
All said and done, it is expected from the political parties to do the home work and remain abreast with all the legal provisions including the aforesaid ones to avoid trouble and the action by the ECI.
