Social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp took down 909 posts during the Lok Sabha elections following orders from the Election Commission. The poll panel’s Director General (Communications) Dhirendra Ojha said on Sunday that Facebook removed 650 posts, Twitter 220, ShareChat 31, YouTube five and WhatsApp three.
As many as 482 of the 650 posts taken down on Facebook were political messages made during the “silence period”. This is a period of 48 hours before the end of polling in which the Model Code of Conduct is in operation.
Ojha said 73 of the 909 posts were political advertisements in the “silence period”, two violated the Model Code of Conduct, 43 were held responsible for “voter misinformation”, 28 were crossing the “limits of decency”, 11 were exit polls and 11 constituted hate speech.
“A total 647 cases of paid news have been found in all, and during the seventh phase, 57 cases,” Ojha said. He said the total number of paid news cases was 1,297 across the seven phases, of which 342 were reported in the first phase.
The seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha polls ended on May 19. The results for 542 Lok Sabha constituencies will be declared on May 23.
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