The Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) & The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES): International Disinformation Dialogue in Nepal Paving Way for Safer Elections

The continuing growth of social media presents many positive opportunities for EMBs to engage with voters and share important voter education and election information. However, social media can also facilitate the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech which, in the context of elections, can threaten electoral integrity, thus eroding democracy. As such, it is imperative that EMBs employ comprehensive strategies, systems, and processes to combat this growing, dynamic threat.
On December 7, 2023, the Election Commission of Nepal (ECN) led a meeting for 33 election management body (EMB) representatives from 10 countries across the Asia-Pacific region to discuss the threat of false information and hate speech on social media to elections with support from the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening core partner the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. This event demonstrated the ECN’s commitment to countering this issue; voicing its willingness to lead regional efforts to develop strategies to combat the spread of false information on social media. The ECN aims for this to be the first of many further discussions on the topic with EMBs.

The EMBs shared their experiences working with social media companies, as well as challenges and successes that come with the goals of establishing common threads of difficulties and identifying strategies which may work across the various countries. Key takeaways included 1) Social media companies are significantly reducing public integrity teams and loosening community guidelines, making it more difficult to have problematic content taken down. 2) Various EMBs have found success in developing internal departments to combat this issue and/or partnering with other relevant organizations to monitor social media. 3) EMBs should work together to create avenues of accountability for social media companies. 4) EMBs, voters, political parties, etc. must work together to shape public policy that addresses the challenges and threats social media poses to elections.