CEC Gyanesh Kumar urges ECI media, communication officers to prevent misinformation
New Delhi, July 3
As the Election Commission of India organised its second one-day conference for media and communication officers, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Friday asked the concerned officials to be wary of "false narratives" being propagated on social media while emphasising the need for them to prevent the spread of misinformation.
According to a press release, CEC Kumar said that "each and every action of the Commission is based on the Constitution of India, Electoral Laws and written instructions issued from time to time in a transparent manner". He added that the highest-ever voter turnouts in the recent Assembly Elections are proof of the trust that Indian electors have in the country's electoral system.
Along with CEC Kumar, Election Commission Vivek Joshi also addressed the participants during the one-day conference, which witnessed the participation of over 260 Media and Communication Officers.
While addressing the gathering, Joshi said that in today's digital world, AI, Deepfakes, synthetic content with an intent to mislead and even mischievous content are spread by motivated actors to erode trust in institutions.
He urged the Media and Communication Officers to counter such attempts based on the rules, instructions and guidelines of the Commission. He also called upon engaging young voters through Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs).
The conference began with a wide overview of communication strategies across the election cycle - from roll to poll, ECINET, important constitutional provisions, and laws relating to media matters. Practical sessions were also organised on planning press notes and amplifying them through media and social media, tackling misinformation and narratives, engaging young electors through ELCs, communicating ECI initiatives to the public, the release said.
The conference brought together Media Nodal Officers (MNOs) and Social Media Nodal Officers (SMNOs), along with District Media Nodal Officers/District Public Relations Officers (DPROs) from various districts of the 16 participating States/UTs, and senior officers from the respective State Departments of Public Relations (DPRs).
The one-day conference facilitated experience-sharing by the officers from the States, which went to the polls recently and the dissemination of best practices, according to the ECI.
— ANI
Reader Comments
I'm glad they're training media officers. In the US, we're dealing with similar issues. India's voter turnout numbers are impressive—maybe we can learn something from your approach to trust-building.
It's good that they are addressing deepfakes and synthetic content. But we also need to ensure that preventing misinformation doesn't become an excuse to curb legitimate dissent or criticism. Transparency is key. 🙏
Voter turnout figures are indeed promising, but numbers alone don't tell the full story. We need to see how effective ECI's response is when faced with a major disinformation campaign. Actions speak louder than press releases.
Engaging young voters through Electoral Literacy Clubs is a brilliant idea! In the West, we struggle with youth apathy. I wish our election officials were as proactive as your ECI. 🇮🇳
"Each action based on Constitution and Electoral Laws" — what about the complaints of voter list manipulation and EVM tampering? ECI is doing good work with media training, but ground-level issues need more attention. Just saying. 🤔
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