India is rapidly digitising. There are good things and bad, speed-bumps on the way and caveats to be mindful of. The weekly column Terminal focuses on all that is connected and is not – on digital issues, policy, ideas and themes dominating the conversation in India and the world.
The Election Commission of India has been clearly abdicating its responsibilities over the last decade as control over its functions are being taken over by the state. The latest in the row is the Government of India’s campaign for first time voters with Mera Pehla Vote – Desh Ke Liye.
The campaign launched by the prime minister and being promoted by various departments of the Government of India takes over ECI’s functions. The MyGov pledge campaign for the same forces voters to share their personal information with an OTP verification.
The responsibility of registering voters, educating voters and encouraging voters participating in elections is clearly the constitutional mandate of the Election Commission of India. Yet, we now see a takeover of this function by the Government of India with activities of taking pledges from first time voters in the name of nation.
Screenshot of the form at https://pledge.mygov.in/mera-pehla-vote/
The #MeraPehlaVoteDeshKeLiye campaign aims to target and influence young voters to vote for the current government of the present day in the upcoming elections. The inaction by the ECI to ignore this State-backed campaign of a political activity is concerning, especially with the abuse of state resources with clear political motives.
The BJP has been using various functionaries to collect personal data of voters across India. This ranges from party workers involved in data collection through apps like SARAL to leveraging the state machinery to gather information on perceived nationalists. This, along with private consultants and dark trade of data brokers, powers the data collection drives for elections.
The personal data collected by the government often ends up in the hands of political parties, which use it for electioneering purposes. Personal data collected by political parties then influences government policy after elections, and information gathered by parties in power during their governance is used in future elections. This forms the life cycle of personal data in electoral processes.
While the ECI is aware of this issue, it has not taken proactive measures to address it.
Not only is the ECI being silent about the misuse of state resources as part of this campaign, it is promoting it. Along with several departments of the Government of India, the ECI and its chief electoral officers are promoting this campaign on social media.
Our #Democracy is banking on you – we appeal to all Voters to exercise their franchise! #Elections2024#ChunavKaParv #DeskKaGarv #ECI #SVEEP #MeraPehlaVoteDeshKeliye pic.twitter.com/ncbobZgOtf
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) March 10, 2024
Advertisement
This abuse of state machinery is not limited to the Government of India, but is seen across various state governments. In case of political campaigns, it is the responsibility of the ECI to monitor them and safeguard the rights of voters. When it comes to the issue of personal data in elections, ECI has always ignored its responsibility to uphold fairness in elections.
Even after five years of Cambridge Analytica, the ECI has consistently ignored the question of personal data and micro-targeting of voters. As India goes for another General Election, ECI is not only silent about these issues, it is openly supporting the abuse of electoral systems.
Even with the passage of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, by Parliament, there has been a lack of enforcement of the Act.
While the Act has specific provisions to ensure data is not used in elections, it is not being enforced. With no rules in sight, the ECI is also going to ignore the role of personal data in elections.
The ECI has also ignored the regulation of the social media and online advertising industry by allowing them to self-regulate. While it actively regulates print and broadcast media through the Model Code of Conduct, the same rules often don’t apply to the world of social media.
It has completely obfuscated its communications to social media companies under the Right to Information Act, categorising them as third-party information that the commission cannot even share with the public. Any censorship of social media content ordered by the ECI is again closed with no details.
While there has been increased activity related to the role of AI and DeepFakes in elections, the ECI has largely neglected to establish any rules or guidelines regarding this matter.
Despite a flurry of notices and advisories from the Government of India related to AI and what content they might produce, ECI is unlikely to act on this issue seriously.
A recent blog post by Google describes its support to the ECI in promoting election-related and self-regulation activities for the upcoming General Elections. Yet, the absence of general norms across the industry should ideally be a concern for the ECI.
It is unlikely there is going to be any solutions to the electoral challenges being encountered in our digital society. But the lack of intent to even attempt to address these problems from the ECI shows it has completely abdicated its responsibility to host free and fair elections.
Srinivas Kodali is a researcher on digitisation and a hacktivist.
