KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 7
Twenty non-governmental organisations, including Digital Rights Nepal have issued a press release calling on the Election Commission and other stakeholders to prevent disinformation and misinformation aimed at influencing the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5.
These organisatons stated in their release that as Nepal heads towards its elections, the risk of cyberattacks, data breaches, and the manipulation of digital information poses a serious threat to the integrity of the election process. The government, election commissions, and civil society organizations need to work together to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information disseminated during this period. The advocacy groups stated that it is essential for the Election Commission and civil society groups to coordinate with these platforms so as to identify and counter disinformation on these platforms.
The government and election bodies, along with media organizations and civil society groups, must strengthen cooperation to ensure the safe flow of information and the integrity of the election process.
Press and online media publishers and editors should not engage in self-censorship due to pressures, threats, or fear of retaliation. Such self-censorship undermines the fundamental values of free expression, professional ethics, and democratic responsibilities, according to the release.
The Election Commission needs to emphasizes the importance of strengthening the democratic process by ensuring that all information provided to the public is accurate and trustworthy. This also requires the active involvement of civil society organizations, media outlets, and other stakeholders, who must remain committed to transparency and truth.
Executive Director of Digital Rights Nepal Santosh Sigdel told THT that the EC needs to have dashboard to show problematic contents being spread on social media platform to inform the public. He said the EC recently stated that 302 contents on social media platforms were problematic but it did not identify those public contents. He said social media account holders were found to be either using AI generated contents or manipulating information to mislead the public about political parties and candidates. The real reason behind all this to make their content viral so as to easily monitise their contents. Sigdel said the government also needs to increase its cyber security capability to counter misinformation and disinformation campaign on the social media platforms.
NGOs that issued the release include Digital Rights Nepal, Dignity Initiative, Center for Media Research- Nepal, Freedom Forum Nepal, Open Internet Nepal (Internet Society Nepal Chapter and Media Advocacy Groups .
