Regulating Digital Election Campaigns

The increasing influence of digital platforms in political campaigns poses new challenges for election regulation, as traditional rules focus primarily on parties and candidates, while third-party actors play a significant role in influencing voters.

Election Commission’s Oversight

• The Election Commission (EC) in its October 14 press note for the Bihar Assembly elections mandated pre-certification of political advertisements by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC).
• Parties were required to disclose social media campaign expenditure under Section 77(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• An October 21 notification extended regulation to prevent political ads in print media on polling and preceding days without prior MCMC certification.

These measures highlighted a regulatory gap focusing mainly on parties and candidates, neglecting the role of third-party actors in shaping political influence.

Digital Campaign Analysis: Bihar Assembly Elections

• Meta’s Ads Library data showed 55 entities spending over ₹1 lakh on digital political ads nationally during the analyzed period, with 32 being third-party campaigners.
• Despite similar average spending, third-party entities achieved twice the average impressions compared to parties and candidates.
• Reach differed by age, with third-party ads showing higher impressions among those aged 25-44 and beyond 44 compared to party ads focused on ages 13-34.

Financial and Influence Dynamics

• Third-party advertisers demonstrated greater cost-efficiency, generating 2.60 crore impressions per ₹10 lakh spent, versus 1.54 crore for parties/candidates.
• Some official party ads were funded externally, raising concerns about understated expenditure and bi-directional financial influence between parties and third parties.

This dual-directional relationship challenges the assumption that influence flows only from parties to third-party campaigners.

Regulatory Challenges

• The EC guidelines inadequately address the role of third-party actors, who may continue campaigning even on polling days.
• Regulations need to extend beyond parties and candidates to include third-party actors involved in campaign finance and content dissemination.
• Current campaign finance disclosure practices often list generic platform payments, lacking specificity on who funds advertisements.

Such practices allow political influence to remain obscured, challenging transparency and fairness in digital campaigning.

Conclusion

Effective electoral regulation must adapt to the digital age, extending oversight to a broader range of stakeholders and addressing the temporal dynamics of campaign influence to sustain trust in digital democracy.