Election Commission’s alert ‘not to be misled by polls surveys’ must be taken seriously

The Election Commission’s warning is most appropriate and timely – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

• Elon Musk’s ‘Starlink’ must be closely monitored by EC

The Election Commission’s alert last Friday, urging Sri Lankan voters ‘not to be influenced or misled’ by surveys on the forthcoming Presidential elections conducted by various entities, must be taken seriously by all Sri Lankan citizens to ensure a genuine Sri Lankan decision at the 21 September elections, uninfluenced by powerful external institutions. 

Indeed foreign social media platforms have unduly influenced election results in many Asian countries and gained leverage over these countries, even while pledging to uphold local election laws, the country’s economic interests and national welfare.

International social media outlets have huge influential impact and together with their local agents with vested interests can discreetly change peoples’ perceptions and actual voting patterns based on these purported survey reports misleadingly in support of candidates supportive of external interests which often conflict with the country’s national interests. 

Purported surveys are an easy tool to deceptively project winning roles for the surveyors’ favoured candidate, which are invariably picked up by foreign owned media platforms. 

The Election Commission’s warning in that context is most appropriate and timely.

Notwithstanding this alert a United States (US) financed local organisation has put out a survey report indicative of a winning role to a particular, well-known candidate, published in a Sunday newspaper. In fairness to this body it must be added that this organisation has otherwise been in the forefront of fighting many court cases in defence of the rights of the public, while this candidate of late has been repeatedly attempting to cross swords with the judiciary most unacceptably. 

Meanwhile South African born Canadian and US citizen, billionaire Elon Musk’s “X’ platform, previously ‘Twitter’, and Starlink need to be closely monitored by the independent election observers and by the Election Commission. Since purchasing ‘X’ in October 2022 for $ 44 million, Musk had run into many controversies following many questionable utterances mostly using his own platform, though as an individual he has his own right to freedom of expression. 

Reuters reporting from Brussels on 12 July said, “Elon Musk’s social media company X breached European Union online content rules and its blue checkmark deceives users, EU tech regulators ruled on Friday in a finding that could lead to a hefty fine and significant changes in how it operates. The charges by the European Commission, the first issued under the Digital Services Act (DSA), follow a seven-month long investigation. The new rules require very large online platforms and search engines to do more, to tackle illegal content and risks to public security.”

In a 12 August report TECH & CNBC headlined, “EU warns Elon Musk ahead of Trump interview to keep hate speech off X”! The report quoted EU Commissioner referring to the recent “riots that have taken place in the UK, triggered by disinformation related to a fatal stabbing attack, as well as a conversation Musk is due to hold with Donald Trump”. 

EC warned Elon Musk and its CEO that the company may face penalties and restrictions in Europe if it doesn’t address the spread of illegal content, including incitements to violence and hate speech, on its social media platform.” It said further, “We are monitoring in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political- or social-events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections”.

The report added, “Riots that have taken place in the UK, in recent weeks were sparked by disinformation that spread on X and other social media platforms, falsely identifying the perpetrator of attacks…” 

“Since then, Musk has made a series of incendiary comments on the situation in the UK on X. At one he suggested the violence taking place on British streets could end up in a civil war, writing, ‘Civil war is inevitable’”. Of course there was no civil war!

“Musk also shared an image of a fake headline that was made to look like it had come from “The Telegraph” newspapers website, falsely claiming that the UK was building “detainment camps” on the Falkland Island for rioters.” The August riots in UK were attacks mostly on Asians and Africans in several parts of UK by the far right extremist whites. The British government took prompt action to arrest over a thousand alleged attackers and prosecuted most of them. 

Musk met Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently and the President invited the billionaire to set up a media platform in Sri Lanka. On 13 August, President’s Media Division announced that Elon Musk’s Starlink had been granted license to offer satellite broadband services across the country in Sri Lanka! Starlink is a subsidiary of X. 

(The writer is a former Member of Parliament and a President’s Counsel.)