Activity continues on hard-to-monitor networks

Under Sections 126, 126A and 135C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, all poll-related activities, such as holding public meetings, delivering speeches, etc., which are intended or likely to influence or affect the outcome of the election, are prohibited during the silent period. Violations may result in imprisonment of up to six months, a fine or both.If a candidate or party is caught using official canvassing, the candidate will first receive a warning. If the offense is serious, they will be banned from campaigning. However, this has not stopped parties from using their IT groups or fan accounts to trend videos with Tamil songs and hashtags. In some cases, some creators are producing independent films that use the voices of candidates to seek votes.ECI TN chief electoral officer V Sridhar said the agency is monitoring all official information from candidates and political parties. “Monitoring private and personal accounts is a task. In such cases, if a complaint is received, we take action. We have written to social media platforms to remove the content. We will release these details after the polls as officials are busy conducting polls,” he said.The EC has an IT team to monitor the videos, but the mechanism to report them to the nodal officer of the network platform and remove them would take at least a day, reducing the impact of restricted content, officials said.