"The regulatory gap between online and offline political communication and elections is staggering. Even as monitors track broadcast media and advertising, elections are manipulated online. Initial responses by recent international electoral observation missions in Kenya, Georgia and Nigeria – as described in this report – have aimed to highlight false information or hate speech disseminated during election periods. This approach follows a similar focus by regulators and platforms on uncovering and removing false or harmful content online. Germany’s NetzDG and the UK’s white paper on Online Harms are examples, as are content oversight boards such as the one established by Facebook. These types of measures can harm free expression and offer only partial solutions [...] This scoping report explains why social media is one of the elements of a democratic, rule-of-law based state that observer groups should monitor. It aggregates experience from diverse civil society and non-governmental initiatives that are innovating in this field, and sets out questions to guide the development of new mandates for election observers." (Foreword)