During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, only about 150 cases of Fake News reported to Social Media Platforms by ECI
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 3, 2019
The Government
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.
Online voting
option for NRIs
Another pieceof  misinformation which was widelycirculated was regarding a purported
circular from ECI, which states that NRIs who hold an Indian Passport can voteonline. However ECI has not passed any such circular, and has confirmed thesame as a disclaimer on their website as well as through the tweets on theirofficial spokesperson.
Filling of Form
7 in case of name not being in Voter list
There was aviral post which statedthat a voter can fill Form 7 and vote, in case the name is not found in thevoter list. However, Form 7 deals with the deletion of voters and notinclusion. Further, the
name being on the voter list is mandatory for voting.
Multiple
stories about discrepancy in election results
Apart from theconcerns raised about the EVMs and the misinformation regarding EVM hacking,security and transportation of EVMs during the elections and prior to counting,there were also claims which emerged highlighting discrepancies in the countingof votes and results that were declared.
Number of
votes reported for BJP candidate as well as Congress candidates was
repetitively  same across multiple
constituencies.
Another
post did rounds after the election results stating that candidates of BJPand Congress received 2,11,820 and 1,40,295 votes respectively across variousconstituencies. However, this story is
false, with the official figures not matching the numbers of the narrative.
Votes
polled for Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad constituency were deleted.
One of the more popular news which was sharedon social media was that 6 lakh votes which were polled for Rahul Gandhi went missingin  Wayanad constituency. The postclaimed that the 6 lakh votes were deleted.
However, the missing number of votes whenadded up to the final votes tally of Rahul Gandhi , would be higher than thetotal votes polled on election day . Hence the 6 lakh votes were not deleted.But the post does seem to arise from some technical error resulting in wrong
display on ECI site.
Misinformation about
election manifestos, claims by political leaders etc. form a major part of fake
news during the elections.
Thevolume of fake news did see a huge surge during the election period and gotwidely shared on social media. These news include fake stores, misinformation,misrepresentation of facts etc. A portion of the stories which circulated weredirected towards political leaders , while few stories contained misinformationabout the electoral promises and the manifestos of the political parties.
Wrongvisuals shown as demolition of Vidyasagar’s
statue in Bengal, waiving of medical bills of those who die in hospital as per
congress manifesto, Rahul and Mamatha dining with
Pakistan’s PM ( there was a similar false story, but involving Narendra Modi),endorsement of Modi by
Australia’s PM etc. are few of the many fake news that were shared during the recent loksabha and state elections.
ECI reporting
to Social media a good step but more instances to be covered
In a press conference held on 19 May 2019, the ECI reported some additional numbers. The ECI official provided the following statistics regarding take down of content by social media platforms under various categories.
Bulk of theseposts were taken down for political messages during the silence period, MCCviolations and exit polls. About 145 of them were related to votermisinformation.
The initiativetaken by ECI to report fake news being shared across various social media andreport the same to the respective social media platforms is a step in the rightdirection. However, the instances reported are not complete, with many of thefake news either being not considered by ECI or reported to the respectiveSocial Media platforms. The engagement will only be fruitful when all kinds ofmessages are considered and reported.
We have reached out to the ECI to find out more about the rationale and criteria behind recognizing and reporting instances of fake news. The story will be updated when we receive a response.