Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, March 05: Expressing concern over sharp increase in circulation of fake news on social media platform especially WhatsApp for political gains, the Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today asked the Election Commission (EC) to take immediate corrective measures to ensure free and fair general election in the country. The LGP said almost all Internet platforms are being misused to mislead the people by presented distorted pictures on various issues.
The spokesman of the party said here on Tuesday that even though the Election Commission has taken note of the situation during its meetings with the government machinery in various states, a strong measures are still awaited as the crisis is worsening by the day. The spokesman said Net-led democratisation of misinformation appears to have no boundary and virtually affecting the whole electoral system. The spokesman said that digital manipulation has emerged as a major menace for a free and fair elections and the people also have to play a vigilant role to frustrate the shenanigan of the political parties. The spokesman said following complaints last year WhatsApp had take few steps to stop misuse of its platform but there appears to be hardly any remarkable change in the situation and the situation is threatening to explode in the run up to the elections. The spokesman said the situation has reached such a pass that screengrabs of various news channels are being used to fill the trust deficit so that they could be taken as real media clippings. The spokesman said “fake and paid news” during the last few elections have taken serious turn affecting fairness in the election and required to be effectively checked for upholding sanctity of the whole process. With “paid news” has come massive use of black money in the election and complete elimination of bad money is more important than any other reform measure in the system.
The spokesman said the electoral politics of deceit, deception and dishonesty in the country has assumed serious dimension and no political party is interested in improving the situation. The spokesman said prevailing dilapidated political system has completely failed to deliver. Laying stress on “New Politics”, the spokesman emphasized on weeding out dishonest and corrupt from political and administrative system, which is necessary for protection of democratic values in the country. The spokesman said hypocrites should be discarded to make way for clean, honest, transparent and committed pro-people and experienced leaders for balanced development of the country.
