On December 10, the Election Commission held a press conference and stated that it would control negative messages and activities that may flow through social media in the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives on February 21. However, how does the Commission monitor and regulate social media?

The Commission is also taking the help of the Nepal Army and Nepal Police, along with the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based software ‘E-Monitor Plus’, to prevent and minimize incidents such as misinformation, hate speech, and data breaches through online platforms during the House of Representatives elections.

The Commission is going to launch the AI-based software ‘E-Monitor Plus’ with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Commission claims that this AI tool will effectively regulate misinformation and violations of the code of conduct circulating on social media. Some fear that involving security forces and foreign technology in close monitoring of the elections may affect citizens’ privacy and democratic practices. The Commission has also discussed with The Asia Foundation about taking the help of social media monitoring software.

‘E-Monitor Plus’ will enhance the capacity of national, regional and global bodies to monitor and analyze practices such as disinformation, toxic discourse, and hate speech, according to the UNDP website. It is mentioned that this will empower them to prepare effective countermeasures according to local contexts.

The commission has prepared three/four-page long keywords such as ‘election’, ‘Falgun 21’, ‘fraud’ and links to more than two hundred online media and social media pages to ‘train’ this system. The commission plans to update the keywords in it as the technology is used in the coming weeks. This software can easily identify and analyze content written in Devanagari script, Roman Nepali and English.

‘E-Monitor Plus’ will track content posted on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube based on keywords, the commission said. It analyzes ‘sentiment’ to determine whether the content is positive or negative. The system will be cloud-based and the commission will operate it through its own dashboard, the commission said. “There will be no access to private messages,” said Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai. “Only posted content will be viewed.”

The commission has initiated a process of collaborating with Meta and TikTok to stop misinformation and defamatory content on social media. The commission also collaborated with technology companies in the 2079 local elections. Since then, Facebook has included Nepal in its ad library and started providing details of political, social and election-related advertisements from here, as well as the expenses incurred on them.

The commission has informed that it will collaborate with Tekpana News Portal this time to fact-check ‘deepfake’ videos, audios and misleading content created using AI.  UNDP experts have come to Nepal to provide orientation and training to the staff of the Commission’s ‘IIPU’ unit and the related technical team for the operation of E-Monitor Plus.

The Election Code of Conduct 2082 completely prohibits opening fake sites on social media, using AI to create misleading content to influence the election, character assassination through social media, and spreading hate speech. According to Election Commissioner Sagun Shamsher Jabra, this new system will immediately identify incidents of code of conduct violations and inform the commission in the form of words or pictures. Action will be taken against the guilty candidates or voters, ranging from asking for clarification to canceling their candidatures.

Although the commission needs to prepare to monitor social media and online platforms, stakeholders have suggested adopting complete transparency in this regard. Santosh Sigdel, founding president and activist of Digital Rights Nepal, said that it should be clear whether foreign software and military equipment only view public posts of the general public or also have access to personal messages.

Instead of calling it ‘foreign software/tool’, the commission should clearly explain what kind of software it is and how it works - Santosh Sigdel, Digital Rights Nepal He argues that such monitoring activities should be open and transparent in a democratic government.  “Otherwise, voters will fear that I am not being monitored,” he said, “and there is a risk that voters will hesitate to express their opinions or resort to self-censorship.” Instead of calling it ‘foreign software/tool’, he pointed out, the commission should clearly explain what kind of software it is and how it works.

Since the flow of false information is high during elections, the commission should play a leading role in controlling and regulating it, said Gopal Krishna Shiwakoti, Chairman of the National Election Observation Committee (NEOC). However, he emphasized that the regulation of information technology and monitoring of social media should be kept within the purview of civilian experts.  "Involving the military in such activities is not appropriate for the health of democracy," he said. "If it is necessary to use the equipment or experts of the security agencies, it should be done only in a very transparent and credible manner."

According to Shiwakoti, the involvement of the army or police may give the impression that information is being controlled in the public mind and this risks creating distrust in the commission. Shiwakoti suggests that it would be appropriate for the commission to mobilize them as there is enough skilled civilian manpower available in the market.