Islamabad, 5th July 2017: Keeping in view the rising cases of deliberate online misinformation and incitement to political and religious violence in online political campaigns, MMFD has requested the ECP to ensure the implementation of CoC for political parties in online spaces, and take measures to counter election-related misinformation.
The letter calls upon the Election Commission of Pakistan to acknowledge the potential of abuse of social media platforms to impact General Elections 2018, and take measures to counter it. “Free political expression is the most essential part of democratic societies and processes, and it is up to the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure that during the General Elections 2018 there is complete transparency around the use of social media platforms by political actors. The ECP also has a responsibility towards the citizens of Pakistan to ensure that the voters are not being misled by the deliberate spread of misinformation”, it reads.
It requests the ECP to initiate a special cell to monitor the election campaigns in online spaces to ensure that political parties are abiding by the CoC and to connect with platforms like Facebook and Twitter to understand how corporations have worked globally with other elections commissions of the world. Read the letter here
