Election Management Body (EMB) Approaches to Countering Disinformation

This working group for electoral management bodies was established to tackle challenges presented by social media and disinformation to the electoral process in May 2021. With nearly 50 election officials from 13 countries in the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans, the group provides EMBs a platform for continued peer learning, skill-building, and developing best practices.  

This Code of Conduct was published to address the issues of election transparency and disinformation in the digital sphere. This code requires transparency regarding the sender, costs, and reach of advertisements during the election campaign. It also urges political parties to avoid posting misleading messages or accept foreign funding for advertising. 

Nepal’s Election Commission published their electoral code of conduct in 2015, which established standards and regulations for various institutions, persons, bodies and authorities. The code includes language for the mass media in preventing the publication, broadcast, or dissemination of “baseless information in favor of or against candidate or political party on electronically used social networks such as S.M.S., Facebook, Twitter and Viber”. Clauses such as these work to ban deliberate sharing of fake news during Nepal’s election period. 

The purpose of the “Ethical Principles of Candidates of 28 October 2018 Presidential Elections” was to establish guidelines for presidential candidates during their election campaigns. The Central Election Commission and candidates agreed to broad disinformation guidance through the clauses such as:

• “abstain from the dissemination of false information with prior knowledge”
• “refuse to use any hate speech or statements that involved xenophobia or intimidation.” 

TSE coordinated a fact-checking coalition, comprising nine renowned fact-checking organizations from the media, named “Coalizão para Checagem – Eleições 2020” (Fact-Checking Coalition – 2020 Elections). The Coalition’s purpose was to verify the factual accuracy of information, news, and stories targeting the electoral process. It encompassed the work of around 100 individuals, including journalists from the fact-checking agencies and officers from the Superior Electoral Court and the 27 state-level EMBs (Regional Electoral Courts).

The purpose of this handbook is to increase public communicators' awareness and understanding of information influence campaigns and develop their ability to respond. The handbook will help public communicators' to recognize common influence techniques more easily and provide them with a toolbox of proactive solutions that can be used to design the most appropriate response. This handbook does not provide a one-size-fits-all solution or a checklist of steps to tick off.

South Africa’s “Code of Conduct: Measures to Address Disinformation Intended to Cause Harm During the Election Period” (in draft form as of July 2020) is aimed at “every registered party and every candidate” with additional obligations under the code for how those parties and candidates must take appropriate recourse against any member, representative or supporter of that party or candidate who behaves in violation of the code. The code is drawn narrowly to limit its application to the electoral period and ground it firmly in the broader legal and regulatory framework in South Africa.

Prior to 2019 elections, the Election Commission of India was able to convene representatives from top social media companies for a two-day brainstorming session on approaches to problematic social media content in elections. Technology and social media companies then signed on to a voluntary Code of Ethics that outlined the nature of collaboration between the EMB and the companies.

First deployed on Election Day in 2018, Project Certeza’s purpose was to identify and deal with false information disseminated, particularly through social networks but also through any other media, that could produce uncertainty or distrust in the citizenry about the electoral authority’s responsibilities as the election is happening.

Real411 was created to give all citizens the power to report digital disinformation during the run up to the 2019 South African National and Provincial Elections. When individuals report to the Real411, they are reporting to the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Directorate for Electoral Offences. The IEC will rule on acts of disinformation for appropriate action to be taken.