Paid news on social media a challenge, feel experts

Experts at a panel discussion here flagged the challenge of paid news on the social media and suggested that the Election Commission's social media code needs to be strengthened .

The panel discussion on political campaigning on social media and issues of paid news was organised on Thursday.

IAS officer K Mahesh, who is the District Election Officer (East), flagged the issue of misuse of social media, print media and electronic media by the political parties in the form of "concealed" campaign for the election.

He also suggested that there was a need after the 2014 general polls to formulate a policy on the use of social media during the election campaign.

"The Internet and Mobile Association of India has developed a voluntary code of ethics for all the participating social media platforms to ensure free, fair and ethical usage of their platforms to maintain integrity of electoral process," he said.

"The voluntary code of ethics is applicable for the period of 48 hours before poll ...