Elections: Congress adopts regulations on Facebook and Google

Among its main points, the text recalls that the National Electoral Chamber has ordered the creation of a register of official accounts of social networks, websites and other digital communication channels of parties and their candidates, who will then be held responsible. digital campaign

In the fundamentals used to advance regulation, lawmakers said: "It is fundamental that as legislators, we be alert to the changes that occur in the behavior of society and by detecting new and unlawful legal practices. violate the rights of citizens, especially in terms of political information in electoral processes, information technologies have played a preponderant role that current legislation does not provide. "

"You can not fail to recognize that, in the world and also in Argentina, technological change has determined that society is becoming more informed about political issues through digital platforms and social networks," adds the text. presented in the deputies

Thus, the project seeks to combat "false information, misinformation or manipulated information" that is intended to mislead or mislead the voter, either to cause harm to a particular candidate or to obtain a political performance another candidate. "

"At this stage of events, we would be very disturbed if we really believed that the production and transmission of deliberately false information is produced and distributed by isolated people without any organization behind them." These organized practices require a lot of funding, expert communication consultants and the complicity of major digital communication companies, since the fake content spreads quickly via Facebook, messaging services such as WhatsApp, on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and search engines such as Google and of other tools of mbad propagation ", indicates the text. This adds: "Just to reproduce them quickly and efficiently, they are developed by trolls and bots, already politicians, journalists, society and even justice recognize the existence of so-called" trolls "that act in coordination to amplify the false information of politicians. "

In recent election campaigns in Argentina, accusations of using such gadgets have been recurrent in order to raise suspicions about a candidate or attempt to direct the vote.

One of the obstacles to controlling expenses is that the companies mentioned above do not charge in Argentina and do not pay taxes either. If they declare this income, they will have to pay the corresponding rates in the country, which would not be surprising if they resist. It should be noted that Facebook and Google, as well as other Internet companies, are facing regulations or regulatory attempts around the world.