Stay off polls, govt warns FB
NEW DELHI : The government on Wednesday warned Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stringent action if the social network attempted to illegally influence the electoral process in India.
The warning came amidst reports of Facebook data being harvested by political consultant Cambridge Analytica, which may have used this to influence elections in other countries.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Mr Mark Zuckerberg, you better note the observation of the IT minister of India. We welcome the FB profile in India, but if any data theft of Indians is done through the collusion of FB system, it shall not be tolerated. We have got stringent power in the IT Act, we shall use it, including summoning you in India.”
Prasad added, “...let me make it very, very clear, we fully support freedom of press, speech and expression; we fully support free exchange of ideas on social media.” “But any attempt, covert or overt, by social media, including Facebook, of trying to influence India’s electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor be tolerated,” he added.
Prasad’s comments were part of a war of words between his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Wednesday over the latter engaging the London-based Cambridge Analytica (CA) for its 2019 campaign and the possibility of misuse of online data. CA is accused of illegally harvesting personal data of over 50 million Facebook users to influence political outcome in several countries, including the United States.
The Congress rejected BJP’S charge, claiming that it was the BJP and its allies that had hired the services of the controversial firm’s India partner during the 2010 Bihar elections. The opposition party claimed that Cambridge’s India partner Ovleno Business Intelligence talked of having achieved “Target 272+” in 2014, providing constituencywise database to BJP candidates and extending support to it in national and state elections.
The BJP posed questions to the Congress asking if “data theft and manipulation ability” were the reason why the Congress hired the CA? It also asked how many times Rahul Gandhi and Cambirdge’s now sacked CEO Alexander Nix had met.