Social media platforms to follow 'code of ethics' in all future elections: EC
New Delhi, Sep 28: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have agreed to follow the "voluntary code of ethics" in all future elections, including the upcoming Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls, the Election Commission said on Thursday.
The code, which was derived to act against paid advertisements that violate norms set by the Election Commission, came into force on March 20 in the last Lok Sabha polls.
"Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on behalf of its members has agreed to observe the voluntary code of ethics during all future elections, including the ongoing general elections to the Haryana and Maharashtra legislative assemblies and various by-elections being held simultaneously," the poll panel said in a statement.
During the last Lok Sabha polls, social media platforms took action on 909 violative cases reported by the EC.
According to the code, no political campaign will be allowed to be run on social media platforms in the last 48 hours before polling ends. This period is referred to as "silence period" to allow voters take a considered decision without the heat and dust of campaign on whom to vote.
The code also facilitates transparency in paid political advertisements.
This was for the first time internet-based companies voluntarily adopted the norms for online poll campaign.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
