Google will help the Election Commission track online political advertising during the forthcoming polls. The search engine major, in a recent meeting, has assured the poll panel that it will develop a mechanism to ensure pre-certification of such advertisements as well as collect and share details of the expenditure incurred on them, said a report in The Hindu.
During the meeting, held on September 4, a Google representative met a committee that had been set up to explore possible modifications in section 126 (election silence) and other provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in view of expansion and diversity of media platforms.
After the meeting, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said the representative of the tech giant has assured that only pre-certified advertisements will go on its platform. It will ask the client to submit details of the permission granted by the EC for their advertisement. For pre-certification, the advertisers needs to take permission from the EC’s media certification and monitoring committees.
Besides verification by EC, Google has also reportedly assured that its new mechanism
will keep a tab on cost incurred on political advertisements. It will further share this
information with the EC. This proposed move of Google would be helpful to Returning
Officers in calculating the election expenditure of individual candidates.
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