Electoral Democracy in India: The Governance Challenge

 

India accounts for nearly 20% of global users of WhatsApp and Facebook today, about 300 million users each. In addition, there are several other smaller social media apps, and then we have ‘big brother’ Google under the Alphabet umbrella.With highly subsidised mobile data connectivity, it is estimated that nearly 400 million Indians are using smart phones today, largely for online shopping on platforms like Amazon and watching YouTube videos. This gives companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook, among others, a disproportionate influence on the content that Indians consume. A large part of such content is related to news and updates from media houses, political parties and their supporters.

Over the past three years, owners of social media platforms like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter have been criticised by parliamentarians, justice officials and competition commissions around the world for unethical (selling personal data), secretive and profiteering practices. The European Union and other inter-governmental bodies have levied huge fines, running into billions of dollars, on Google for restrictive and unethical trade practices which undermine competition.

In a few weeks, nearly 900 million voters in India are expected to exercise their franchise to democratically elect their future government. About 100 million of these are first time voters who turned 18 after the previous parliamentary elections five years ago. In the coming days, the most pressing concern for the Central Election Commission (CEC) of India is how to govern the national elections and ensure they remain fair and democratic in this era of fake news and unprecedented influence from social media. The CEC is ensuring wide voter awareness and voter registration through a campaign. To a large extent, voter IDs have been digitalised and made accessible through photo-identification. ‘Booth-capturing’ and ‘fake -voting’ are no longer the prime concerns of the CEC in India. How can they safeguard against obstacles to voters in polling booths, which can be manipulated to target and restrict certain citizens from voting through acts and threats of present or future violence on social media? How many instances of false propaganda, abusive and divisive communications and subtle cyber violations of election code of conduct can the CEC monitor and hold political parties accountable for before we cast our vote?

Several unethical practices carried out by various paid ‘agents’ (domestic and foreign) during the 2016 American Presidential elections were established in the Mueller Report submitted last week. As was done during the American Presidential elections in 2016, social media platforms and their various subsidiaries and allies could very easily ‘sell’ personal data of users in India to domestic and foreign agents who can manipulate it for influencing voter choices, in subtle and fake manners. In countries like India with no legal privacy protection, Facebook is ‘ungovernable’ by any public authority. Google can enter into ‘deals’ with agencies which restrict advertisement of ‘other’ political parties, thereby violating CEC code of conduct for media advertising. Riding the high-tech wave of mobile applications are numerous other smaller, less visible, local players who are already active in the campaigning process for several thousand candidates and several hundred political parties contesting the elections.

Citizens’ coalitions and election watch groups in India have always monitored the role of money, big business and fake propaganda in influencing voting behaviour; they have been supporting CEC and district election authorities in monitoring and reporting violations of election codes of conduct. How will they monitor cyber space and its actors? Earlier this week, Facebook announced it had deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. This is but a drop in the social media ocean. Monitoring millions of social media users and thousands of apps is a near impossible task.

In the long run, sustained digital literacy and cyber awareness programmes for young Indians are critical for preparing them to maintain and practice their freedoms – of association, expression and movement – to ensure India’s electoral democracy remains fair and free. In the meanwhile, public debates and awareness on how social media can be used to spread misinformation and coordinate attacks across party lines will be useful for all citizens.

Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhatrey/6886404209

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