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From midnight today, EC will remove election publicity material from social media
View(s):The Election Commission will take steps to remove election campaigning content and propaganda material from social media sites during the cooling period which begins from midnight today, a senior EC official said.
Suranga Ranasinghe, Assistant Commissioner who heads Election Dispute Resolution Unit, told the Sunday Times that since social media platforms had a communication channel with the Election Commission, the Commission would take proactive steps to remove them immediately. “The main difficulty we are facing is that we don’t have adequate laws to regulate social media sites and campaign financing.”
The amount Sri Lankan candidates have spent on social media campaigns increased by USD 150,000 within a week by some 10,000 more tailored and targeted advertisements that appear on user timelines, according to the social media site’s Ad Library which publishes expenditure details of paid campaigns.
So far the candidates have spent up to US$ 359,795 (more than Rs 66.8mn) on 22,843 election-related publicity items on Facebook and its other platforms, including Instagram.
The increase was 53 percent compared to last week’s expenditure of US$ 234,692 (Rs 43.5mn). Last week, the Facebook and related platforms recorded a nearly 300 percent hike from early this month as many well-funded candidates opted to pay USD 100-400 to carry out targeted campaigns. By July 5, it was nearly USD 60,000.
“We’re working hard to protect the integrity of the Sri Lanka election by combating harmful content, working with civil society organisations to identify and stop emerging threats, and by limiting the spread of misinformation. We’re constantly reviewing our tools to make sure that Sri Lankans feel safe while using our platforms and taking part in the civic process. We’ll continue to do this in the lead up to the vote, during the election and beyond,” a Facebook spokesperson told the Sunday Times.
Facebook said that anyone who wanted to run ads about elections or politics in Sri Lanka would need to confirm their identities and run these ads with a “Paid for by” disclaimer.
Election watchdogs noted that the online publicity expenditure might have gone up significantly during the final days before the cooling period which begins at midnight today. (SR)