As election fever catches up in Karnataka, WhatsApp group admins are sending out disclaimer messages to group members to be cautious in sending pointless political forwards and requesting them not to put political messages in the teams.
Ubiquitous throughout elections and in any other case, reigning in unverified ads, images, hate speeches, and fake information on the platform has been a problem for a very long time. With conversations about politics heating up because the elections close to, many admins, uninterested in political arguments and messages, are placing up restrictions on such chats and developing with an unwritten code of conduct for teams.
One such message in Kannada on a WhatsApp group reads, “Since there is a model code of conduct in the State due to the elections, political debates, chats, fake news on politicians or political parties are not entertained in this group and members have to restrict putting up such messages in the group and the admins are not responsible for any such messages.”
Mohan D. on Bengaluru, an admin for a WhatsApp group, has additionally requested members to restrict any politically motivated and deceptive messages. “Before elections were announced, there were a few fake and propaganda-based political messages being circulated in the groups. But after the election date was announced, we are seeing a lot of such messages, which not only create fake propaganda but also lead to unnecessary political debates. Then we thought of warning the group members to avoid such messages.”
Praveen Raj, one other admin, shared his expertise on how such political messages are harming their reallife relationships. “From the last seven years, our group of friends were on a WhatsApp group. Initially, political debates and jokes were welcome, but later, there were political debates and fake political messages, which led to chat fights between members and many of them lost friendships due to such unwarranted political debates. Now, as elections are coming up, we have decided to put up a disclaimer to avoid political debates and messages,” Mr. Raj added.
WhatsApp, a significant software for political events
WhatsApp can also be a giant software for political campaigning.
A volunteer in a social media workforce of a significant political get together mentioned, “WhatsApp is one of the major social media platforms to push political campaigns as not just youngsters, but even senior citizens use WhatsApp. So the reach is more. WhatsApp access and engagement time is far more than other social media platforms. We have more than 2,000 WhatsApp groups and are targeting to reach over 5,000.”
EC monitoring
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is monitoring political ads on social media and in addition fake information. All political ads on social media would require pre-certification from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) on the district and State ranges.
Provisions of the mannequin code of conduct may also apply to the content material being posted on social media by candidates and political events. Any violation can lead to motion by the Election Commission.
On Thursday, the Election Officer of Madikeri Assembly constituency issued a show-cause discover to one of many WhatsApp group admins for allegedly circulating a politically motivated video clip on teams. The incident occurred in Kushalnagar in Kodagu.
The fee has appointed Social Media Nodal Officers for escalation of violation of the MCC or every other fee’s directions/provisions of the legislation and court docket’s orders in issues associated to the election on social media platforms throughout elections. “Digital advertising should be pre-certified by the MCMCs at the district and State levels,” Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka Manoj Kumar Meena mentioned.
