People Can Be Prosecuted for Posting Against Parties Under MCC? A Fact-Check

After the announcement of the dates of 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the enforcement of Model Code of Conduct (MCC), a claim is being circulated that the Ministry will be monitoring posts on social media platforms.

It further added that anyone who posts against the government or political party or any personality will be liable for prosecution.

We received a query about the viral claim on our WhatsApp tipline as well. (More archives of similar posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

What is the truth?: The MCC comprises a set of guidelines for political parties and candidates contesting the elections. It does not mention anything about social media posts made by individuals.

What led us to the truth?: When we performed a keyword search on Google, we came across the set of guidelines as part of the Model Code of Conduct of the official website of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

• These guidelines, as specified in the headline, are set in place for political parties and candidates.

• It detailed the expected behaviour of political parties during meetings, processions, and polling day and included guidelines for election manifestos.

• The guidelines did not include anything related to social media posts made by individuals.

• A report published in The Hindu said that the MCC is not a statutory document, which means it is not enforceable by laws passed in the Parliament.

• This, in turn, means that if someone violates these guidelines, they might not attract punitive actions.

• However, there are several practices and corrupt practices that can attract punishments as per the Indian Penal Code ( now known as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita).

Project launched to tackle misinformation: A Times of India report mentioned that the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar spoke about setting a "Myth vs Reality project".

• He said that the state authorities will be given power to request removal of false social media posts under sections 69 and 79 (3) of the IT Act.

Team WebQoof has reached out to the ECI to seek clarifications on the viral post and to understand how they are defining "false" posts.

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