Indias Election Commission to Monitor Social Media Campaigns Slug: India social media Reporter: Shuriah Niazi/India Date:

06/11/2013 INTRO Indians from five states will go to the polls for assembly elections starting this month. With the rise of social media, political parties are going online to mobilise support and raise awareness. And the Election Committee doesnt want to be left behind they have issued the first guidelines for the use of social media for campaigns and elections. Shuriah Niazi has more from Madhya Pradesh. TEXT SFX of election campaigning In the state of Madhya Pradesh, assembly elections will be held on November 25. But this time, campaigning will be a bit different. SFX clicking mouse Political parties are flocking online to attract voters... making heavy use of social media. Both the ruling and opposition parties are making sure that their presence is felt online. Tanima Dutta is the IT coordinator for the opposition Congress Party. Tanima clip 1 (Female, Hindi): Social media will play a major role in urban areas. Its where people can express their views freely. Its also important for political parties to have direct contact with their voters, so they know about the partys view. I understand that you cannot win elections only through social media, but you can create a good impression for yourself. The ruling BJP party is aggressively targeting social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The party has even launched a Facebook application to merge your photo with a readymade party banner. Vikas Bondriya is the IT coordinator for the BJP. Vikas clip 1 (Male, Hindi): We are using social media in this elections to the maximum effect. Were interacting with party workers, supporters and the public through social media. We have designed a system so that some campaigns can be run by party workers and politicians. We get help from our supporters to run our social media campaign.

According to a recent study by the IRIS Knowledge Foundation, most young people in this years elections are swing voters. Some 14 million of them, aged between 20 and 29 years. And young voters like 20-year-old Anupreet Dewedi, who will vote for the first time, are relying on social media to help him decide who to vote for. ANUPREET CLIP 1 (Male, Hindi): I understand that internet penetration is still low in India, but now a lot of people are using social media through smart phones and other means. I think those parties who are using social media will certainly have an edge over other parties. In India, overall internet penetration is as low as 11 percent, with 120 million active users. But the rise of social media has prompted Indias Election Commission to issue detailed guidelines to regulate internet campaigns on social media. Advocate, Virag Gupta, was responsible for filing the petition to push the Election Commission to create the guidelines. VIRAG CLIP 1 (Male, Hindi): A politician cannot promise whatever they like during elections. If he promises something on Twitter or Facebook, it should be controlled. This could only be done through proper guidelines. All the money spent on social media will be included in the upcoming election campaigns too. According to the guidelines, candidates have to declare all emails and social media accounts used for campaigns. And the Election Committee will have to approve any political ads on websites or social media platforms. All parties are also required to keep a record of any payments made for campaigns on social media. Each candidate is limited to around 26 thousand US dollars for the assembly elections. Akshay Rout is the Director General of Indias Election Commission. AKSHAY CLIP 1 (Male, Hindi): According to the Information Technology Act, social media is similar to electronic and print media. If certification is needed for electronic media, then we should have similar procedures for social media. If we have to regulate election finances and to provide a level playing field in elections, we need to have the guidelines for social media too. Candidates from both ruling and opposition parties welcome the guidelines. Vikas Bondriya is the BJPs IT coordinator. Vikas Clip2-(Male, Hindi): We are ready to provide these things. We are ready to follow the law of the land. Shuriah Niazi for Asia Calling from Madhya Pradesh, India.