Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change doubts effectiveness of EC’s voluntary code of ethics

A think tank, which has been at the forefront of matters linked to social media and had approached the Supreme Court to direct WhatsApp to appoint a local grievances officer, has raised questions over the effectiveness of the voluntary code of ethics announced for such platforms, saying that it “defies all established legal norms”.The Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), in a letter it shot off to the Election Commission, called the voluntary code announced last week by the commission and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) “an unheard-of proposition”. It said the code had “glaring deficiencies”.It said the commission, the most powerful authority during elections, was trying to make compliance optional for social media companies. “How can the Election Commission render its instructions otiose by allowing a Voluntary Code of Ethics,” it said in the letter, a copy of which ET has seen.“The Voluntary Code of Ethics document as available on the ECI website does not contain the name and address of the parties to the Voluntary Code. In absence of the signatures of all participants on the Voluntary Code, it is unclear as to who is bound by the same,” it said, while demanding that the commission publish the address and other details of all the participants along with the minutes of the meetings.In a response to ET’s queries, IAMAI said the code only listed the principles of conduct. “The code was submitted with a covering letter which had the names of the companies. The code was presented with all representatives of these companies in a press conference and it was officially handed over and even the press release by IAMAI had the names of the signatories,” it stated.68640330 In a press release issued on March 20, IAMAI had said under the code, the participants had voluntarily undertaken to establish a high priority communication channel with the nodal officers designated by the commission. Participants mentioned in the press release included BIGO, ByteDance, Facebook, Google, ShareChat and Twitter.However, social media executives, who spoke to ET on the condition of anonymity, said no signed documents had been exchanged between the IAMAI and companies over the code.“The code states the orders will have to be processed within three hours and not necessarily take down objectionable content which could leave it open to misuse,” said one of them. “Instagram is a hub of misinformation and is not a part of the code,” said another executive.The CASC’s contention is over the absence of the names in the final code document uploaded on the ECI website.The entity, founded by Supreme Court advocate Virag Gupta, has been at the forefront of matters linked to social media companies and had previously also written to the parliamentary panel to summon the heads of US tech firms on matters like data privacy. In January, the Supreme Court allowed the Reserve Bank of India to be made party to a petition filed by the CASC in the WhatsApp payment service matter. The plea filed by CASC had said WhatsApp had not fully complied with the RBI circular which prescribed data localisation guidelines. It had previously questioned WhatsApp’s failure to appoint a grievance officer, following which the apex court asked the Centre to file its reply on CASC's plea.The NGO has suggested that the commission notify all the details of the officers and teams of social media companies on the ECI website, besides directing the platforms to give an undertaking for non-disclosure, non-sharing and non-manipulation of Indian data during the elections.If the social media companies do not comply with the commission's directions, then an FIR may be lodged against the responsible people for manipulation of data to influence the election process, its letter said.The commission should also direct WhatsApp to suspend all political groups in the silence period of the last 48 hours before voting, the CASC has demanded.

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