Citing ‘misuse’, EC cuts storage time of polling videos, photos to 45 days

The Election Commission has reduced the retention period of video footage and photographs of the polling process to 45 days, citing “recent misuse” of such material, The Indian Express reported on Friday.

In a notice to state chief electoral officers on May 30, the commission stated that videography and photography of polling were not mandated by law but were used as an “internal management tool”, the newspaper reported.

The panel said that the data can be deleted after the 45-day period if no election petition is filed for it, The Indian Express reported. It was referring to petitions filed in courts to challenge the election of a candidate in a poll.

In 2024, the Election Commission had issued instructions laying out timelines, ranging from three months to a year, for storing video footage from stages of the election process, the newspaper reported.

The guidelines mandated that the footage from the pre-nomination period must be retained for three months. Recordings from the nomination stage, campaign period, polling and counting were to be preserved for periods between six months and one year, it had stated.

In its May 30 notice, the poll panel said that the “recent misuse of this content by non-contestants for spreading misinformation and malicious narratives on social media by selective and out-of-context use of...

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