LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS: COUNTER-DISINFORMATION CODE OF CONDUCT GAZETTED

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS: COUNTER-DISINFORMATION CODE OF CONDUCT GAZETTED

• 04 September 2026
• Electoral Law
• SA Legal Academy

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has gazetted a code of conduct for countering disinformation in local government elections. Released in draft form in June 2026 for public comment, the new code:

• is immediately binding
• ‘applies to all election-related communications, conduct and campaign activities by political parties and candidates, whether undertaken directly or through any person acting on their instruction, authority or for reward, both online and offline, and in respect of paid and unpaid content and communication’
• guides ‘those with political influence on the reasonable standard of conduct in guarding against and responding to disinformation that seeks to undermine electoral integrity and democratic processes by identifying measures to counter the risk of harm that disinformation poses to electoral integrity’, and
• provides for ‘effective measures, both proactive and responsive, to address the exigencies of disinformation in the digital environment, including … social media platforms and (the use of) artificial intelligence’.

With that in mind, among other things the new code of conduct covers:

• ‘public commitments’ applicable to all political parties and candidates (including support for the work of the IEC)
• the ‘duty to comply’
• information integrity, and
• measures specific to online platforms.

Please click the link below for more details:

• code of conduct for countering disinformation

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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