Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The 2016 elections may prove to be the most challenging for the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
One of the challenges it faces is to come up with a set of rules to regulate online election campaigning — without violating freedom of expression, James Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said on Monday (August 10).
The problem, he said, would be to determine whether a blogger, for example, was paid by a candidate as part of his campaign machinery.
“We’re actually treading on thin ground,” Jimenez said.
More than ad spaces online, Comelec will be imposing rules on campaigns aired and published on video sharing sites, blogs, and other social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
He explained that the focus now would be on how much candidates spend on producing what would be aired on video sharing sites, and published on blogs.
“We think it [the internet] can be used to hide a lot of expenses,” he said. “You look at it but you don’t see it costs a lot of money. Anyone can put out ad on social network and say: ‘I spent less than P500 on that’.”
As general rule, he said, what is paid for should be regulated.
But Comelec would need to draw the line on what could be considered as payment and on how to trace those payments, IT law expert JJ Disini said.
