Prosecutors here released guidelines Wednesday regarding the use of social networking services for political campaigning, in an effort to check illegal electoral practices a week before the capital’s mayoral by-election.

According to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the National Election Commission, prosecutors will strictly monitor different SNS including Twitter, to ensure that candidates do not spread false information about one another.

Prosecutors also added that they will be monitoring all tweets regarding the Oct. 26 by-elections for Seoul mayor and others. Authors of such tweets which do not begin with “campaign information” will face punishment.

On election day, voters who post photos of themselves and their vote ballot online will be found in violation of election laws and punished accordingly. Posting to encourage voters to turn out to polling booths, expressing support for or opposition of certain candidates will also be considered punishable electoral practices.

The recent announcement comes as the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office began an investigation into the creator of Twitter account claiming to be Grand National Party candidate Na Kyung-won.

The account with the username @nakw_mirrored had posted slanderous tweets, claiming to be from the judge-turned-politician. The account included tweets such as “I act without thinking a lot, please just regard it as charm.”

“SNS have become such powerful tools in election campaigning that people say ‘get a hold of SNS and win the election,’” said a prosecution official, whose name was undisclosed to the media.

“Prosecutors plan to actively monitor (SNS) to ensure that smear and slander campaigns are not being used, as Twitter is a powerful too.”

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)