data suggests that a total of 154 instances of Fake News/Misinformation were
reported by the ECI to social media platforms during the Lok Sabha elections. We take a look at these numbers and if these represent the entire gamut of misinformation. In response to a question in Lok Sabha, on 24 July 2019, about the list of complaints against fake/false news on social media during the 17 Lok Sabha General Elections, the Minister of Law and Justice responded by providing a list of complaints that were received by the Election Commission of India (ECI). He also went on to list the action taken in terms of reporting them to and directing the respective Social Media platforms to remove the content spreading this fake/misinformation. The answerfurther stated that a majority of the complaints received were from socialmedia Nodal officers appointed at Media Certification and Monitoring Committee(MCMC) at Office of the Chief Electoral Officer at the state level. The details of the cases were enlisted in Annexure I along withanswer. As per the data presented, a total of 46 cases were reported toFacebook, 97 cases to Twitter and 11 cases were reported to YouTube. But thesenumbers are much lower than the quantum of fake news (misinformation) relatedto the electoral process, witnessed during the Lok Sabha elections. Voluntary Code of Ethics signed by the Social Media platforms In the run upto the Lok Sabha general elections, the social media platforms agreed to a ‘Voluntary Code of Ethics’ with a commitment to deploy appropriate policies and processes toensure the integrity & transparency of electoral process. Among otherthings, the platforms agreed to setting up of high priority dedicated reportingmechanism for the ECI and acting upon all valid legal requests for removal ofcontent etc. expeditiously. Misinformation/fake news about the EVMs one of the main reasons for complaints A major portionof the complaints that ECI has reported to the social media platforms are inrelation to EVMs. There were 84 casesreported to Twitter in regard to the list of tweets compiled by the SocialMedia team of ECI, stating that the tweets spread misinformation about EVMs (thespecific information was not divulged in the Annexure). There were 22complaints reported to Facebook, in regard to posts stating that 20 Lakh EVMswent missing. YouTube also received 9 complaints with the same reason ofmissing EVMs. There were 9 complaints totwitter and 11 to Facebook in regarding to posts/tweets which state that theEVMs are being transported without security. Apart from the cases related EVMs, anothercomplaint highlighted by ECI was regarding the misinformation being reportedabout inedible ink. Misinformation about Electoral processes not included in the complaints reported by ECI Factly has fact-checked and debunked multiple false claims about the electoral process, rules and otherrelated guidelines during the elections. However, the complaints reported byECI to the various social media platforms do not include the complete gamut offake stories and misinformation spread during the general elections. Few ofthese fake stories were about rules and guidelines regarding the electoralprocess, which ECI should have ideally taken cognizance of. Here is a lookat some such stories and misinformation which was shared widely on the socialmedia platforms in relation to the elections. None of these claims werereported to the social media platforms by the ECI. Challenge vote and Tender vote One claim whichwent viral was regarding Challenge Vote and Tender Vote. The post claimed that, in case a voter does not find his name in theelectoral roll after reaching the election booth, he/she can ask for aChallenge Vote. Further, in case the vote is being already cast by someoneelse, then the voter can ask for a “Tender” vote. There is also a mention ofsection 49A, in regard to this rule. However, thisinformation was identified to be false. Theaforementioned section relates to the design of EVM and not regarding the castingof vote in case of the name not being in the voter list. Challenged Vote on theother hand is exercised by the polling agents to challenge the identity of anelector, of which the presiding officer can take cognizance and conduct andenquiry. There is a provision for Tender vote, where the candidate can cast avote if the vote has already been casted. However, the information in the postabout repolling in case of 14 % tender vote is False. This claim wentviral on WhatsApp and other social media platforms and was shared by lakhs ofpeople. In fact, several people were reported to have picked up a fight with electionofficials about the non-existent challenge vote.