The Election Commission says it will form a team to monitor the social media for rumours and propaganda ahead of the 11th Parliamentary Election slated for Dec 30.
Its Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed told the media on Thursday (Nov 21) that it has scheduled a meeting for Nov 26 with representatives from the telecoms regulator, mobile phone operators and law enforcers working on cyber crimes.
“We will start the process upon their advice. Social media is an open thing so it cannot be regulated directly. We will try to figure how to respond in the wake of rumours and propaganda aiming to foil the election,” said the EC official.
Responding to a query, Secretary Ahmed said the Commission has no plans for a Facebook shut down on Election Day.
He, however, evaded a direct answer over ongoing campaigning in the social media. “We will discuss the issue during the meeting on the 26th. No comments before that.”
According to EC official, the Commission has held a meeting earlier with concerned authorities over the issue, when experts recommended that clamp down on social media will not be reasonable rather advised some kind of monitoring and controlling mechanism.
The Election Commission, however, says it’s not considering to include a ban on campaigning through the social media in the code of conduct.
“We, however, initially did consider a bar, but rolled back as it can’t be controlled by that,” Election said Commissioner Kabita Khanam before adding: “Rumours cannot be stopped but there’s law to tackle the issue.”