During the 2022 national elections, in a bid to control misinformation, disinformation and hate speech on social media, the Election Commission had announced plans to coordinate with tech companies like Meta (which operates Facebook and Instagram), X, and Chinese firm ByteDance, the parent company of the video-sharing app TikTok.

Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesperson for the commission, said this time they are taking a new approach to curb the spread of misleading information ahead of the March 5 elections.

The Election Information, Dissemination and Coordination Centre (EIDC) has been set up under the commission to make elections more systematic and technology-driven. Within the EIDC, the Information Integrity Promotion Centre (IIPC) works to discourage the spread of misinformation and misleading content. Representatives from various government agencies are involved in this mechanism.

“These bodies analyse harmful and toxic content and recommend action to relevant regulatory authorities,” Bhatta told the Post. “This also involves cooperation with platforms such as Meta and TikTok.” The Election Commission has categorised misinformation, disinformation and hate speech as harmful content.

The poll body has so far written to various agencies requesting action against 98 pieces of content on social media.

It has also announced stricter monitoring of election-related advertising on social media. Even small spending on advertisements online can have a big impact as specific constituencies, social groups, or genders can be targeted.

During the 2022 local elections and federal elections, the commission partnered with Meta and TikTok to regulate political ads, tracking both spending and content transparency. Since then, Facebook’s Ad library has included Nepal, providing public access to expenditure and content details. A similar cooperation is underway this year to curb misinformation, false content, and hate speech.

Similarly, a special cell under the Integrated Election Security Plan-2025 has been formed to monitor social media. The cell has representatives of the Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Intelligence Department, according to Nepali Army spokesman Rajaram Basnet.

“As social media has become a new battlefield in election campaigns, security agencies are closely monitoring fake posts and misinformation,” Nepal Police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle said.

Nepal Police has formed cyber cells at the district level specifically for the election period.

“We are using specialised software, eMonitor+, to identify and track misinformation, disinformation and hate speech,” Kafle said. “We work directly with the Central Joint Cyber Cell at the Election Commission to identify candidates or activities that use fake likes or manipulated videos to mislead the public.”

The Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police has been empowered to take immediate action against violations of the Election Code of Conduct or the Electronic Transaction Act.

Kafle also said they have taken action against individuals who incite people through fake likes on social media posts. A few days ago, the Facebook likes of Rastriya Swatantra Party candidate for Bhaktapur-2, Rajiv Khatri, appeared unnatural. It was later found that most of Khatri’s Facebook likes came from fake accounts.

Similar allegations were made against Eliza Gautam, a proportional representation candidate from the Aam Janata Party. Her husband, journalist Rishi Dhamala, is contesting from Rautahat-4. However, the police are yet to act against either of them.

Khatri claimed that his social media posts were boosted by someone else without his knowledge.

Experts say such activity is unlikely unless a social media account is compromised and said that manipulation usually requires complete access to the account or simultaneous cooperation from the owner—and this is an extremely unlikely scenario.

As election campaigning increasingly shifts to social media, platform algorithms influence voters more than ever. The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made it even harder for voters to distinguish what is genuine from what is not.

Experts say regulating social media algorithms is difficult, but public awareness can help. Dovan Rai, an AI specialist, said, “If a candidate shares fake videos or misleading posts, their party should be held accountable. Voters must also remain vigilant.”