CEC Thapaliya terms fake news as threat to democracy

Kathmandu / Oct 18: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has said that regulation of fake news, misinformation and hate speech that are disseminated through the social networking sites was a tough job and the Election Commission (EC)’s lone efforts could not be effective for it.

At a conference on Election Integrity organised by Meta, the mother organization of Facebook, in the capital city on Tuesday, Thapaliya said different provisions mentioned in the election code of conduct to regulate the fake information, misinformation and hate speech were based on the best practices from the democratic countries and outcome of the research studies.

He further said that the EC will make maximum efforts to maintain overall integrity in the poll.

“Owing the massive outreach of the social networking sites, there has been drastic change in the pattern of use of information and consumption amongst Nepalis. As a result of this, except the conscious users of social networking sites, everyone could be a victim of fake news and misinformation. Democracy and election, and fake news, misinformation and hate speech cannot go together,” the Chief Election Commissioner argued.

Fake news, misinformation and hate speech are a serious challenge to democracy and an enemy to freedom of expression, according to Thapaliya.

Amid such circumstances, the voters could be misled and would be deprived of taking informed decision ultimately leading to wrong representation. RSS