India asks Facebook to regulate paid political content ahead of elections

Ahead of  national elections on April 2019, the Bombay High Court has asked Facebook to submit an affidavit explaining how the platform plans to regulate political or poll-related advertisements on social media 48h before the election date. Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N M Jamdar asked in the written plea: ‘Since Facebook already implemented a strict scrutiny system to regulate such ads in UK and USA then why is it reluctant to do so in India?’. Facebook specified that removal of such content is possible; however, such request should come from the Election Commission of India (ECI) in order to avoid developing a self-censorship system within the internet platform.