MUMBAI: Digital media has taken the world by storm. The last elections of the two biggest democracies of the world – India and the US – showed the power of efficient digital campaigns in political battles. However, as easy as it is to use social media platforms for campaigning, it is equally capable of being misused.
With the general elections of India just a month away, the doubt about the power of programmatic advertising on election results is obviously bothering everyone. The involvement of Facebook in the manipulation of election results in the US only thickens the clouds of uncertainty.
Indiantelevision.com asked a few people in the industry what these measures would mean to the political parties and the election process. Ethinos Digital Marketing MD Siddharth Hegde said, "This is a much-needed move. Most countries across the world already have such policies in place and this will be a first for India for its forthcoming elections. We are likely to see more transparent conversations and campaigns and a decrease in the number of companies/ pseudo-individuals who were earlier running fake campaigns. Fake news has been a huge challenge for social media and such policies will serve as a huge deterrent.”
To assuage growing criticism from users and investors, global digital media giants, Facebook, Twitter, and Google recently announced new policies to make political advertising more transparent and reliable. Measures like not allowing anonymous ads to run on user feed, making the acquisition of a pre-certificate issued by the Election Commission of India or a source it authorises and getting valid authorisations are a bid to solve a few of these problems.
TRA Research CEO N Chandramouli called for stronger governmental control on false information. He said, “The ability to manipulate voters with messages that create fear, uncertainty and doubt (known as FUD in communication) has grown manifold after the proliferation of social media. Such messages polarise voters with strong, often inflammatory messages that seem to audiences to be from authentic sources. The need for all social media regulation at a governmental level on areas of misinformation and false information is necessary. This is especially needed when elections and other important events are due in a country, but also needed in all other times when incorrectly motivated citizens can be aroused by false news to cause harm to their own country and society.”
On the other hand, Monk Media Networks founder and CEO Ashish Patkar felt the measures are being implemented too late. He said, “We are heading into an era where a Facebook 'Like' today will be an equivalent of an EVM machine button tomorrow. Social media on the positive side has politically engaged the millennial generation which has till now stayed away from voting but on the flip side, the Us V/s Them debate is being fuelled by fake media at all levels. The new controls by Facebook, Google, and Twitter is a small start towards putting out endorsed and verified messages but, frankly, I believe it is too little too late. In terms of spending, the official spending will go down but the unaccounted spends through supporter accounts and influencer accounts will continue unabated and in my view actually go up.”
With over 556 million Indians on the internet this time around, the spectacle will be one to witness as to how political parties harness the power of the medium while at the same time ensure its fair usage.
