Page 155 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Chapter 4hapter 6
The Grandest Festival of Democracy C

Financial Ins tu ons assured the Commission of prompt Sabha's Department-related Standing Commi ee on
24x7 expenditure monitoring and surveillance ac on. Informa on of Technology took a tough stand on social
media intermediaries regarding fake news, hate posts,
Voluntary Code for Social Media
etc though it could not finish preparing the report.
One of the imponderables in 21 century elec ons is the
The Elec on Commission's outlook on the ma er was
behaviour of social media. Democra c ins tu ons across
one of developing consensus. In a mee ng with the
the world have grown vigilant about the role and conduct
representa ves of social media intermediaries and
of tech pla orms. Prior to the elec ons, the 16 Lok
Internet and Mobile Associa on of India (IAMAI) on
March 19, 2019 the Commission pitched for self-
regula on on the lines of the Model Code of Conduct that
has worked well without any statutory backing. As a
result of these delibera ons, the IAMAI came out with a
Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Elec ons, 2019.

The Associa on agreed to
a) entertain poli cal adver sements in accordance with
obliga on under law and pre-cer fica on issued by
ECI and/or Media Cer fica on and Monitoring
Commi ee (MCMC)
b) facilitate transparency in paid poli cal adver sement
by using pre-exis ng labels or disclosure technology
and
c) provide an update of measures taken to prevent abuse
of respec ve pla orms on receiving of a valid request
from the Commission.

The Seventeenth General Elec ons were themed – Desh
Ka Mahatyohar or the grand fes val of democracy.
Doordarshan Na onal Channel ran a talk show featuring
senior officers of the Elec on Commission by the same
tle. At the me of announcing the elec ons, the total
electorate published in the E-rolls in reference to January
1, 2019 was approximately 912 million (90 crores)
signifying more than 834 million (8.4 cr) addi on to the
electorate size of 814.5 million (81.45 cr) in General
Elec ons, 2014.

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