EC plans meet to shield polls from data mining

Congress, BJP trade charges over ‘involvement’ with Cambridge Analytica

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Problem: 39 Indians dead; Government on the mat, caught lying. Solution: Invent story on Congress and Data Theft... RAHUL GANDHI,

Congress president

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All I will tell Rahul Gandhi he should not do politics on dead bodies of Indians who lost their lives... RS PRASAD, Union minister

NEW DELHI: The election commission will hold a meeting on Tuesday, March 27, to discuss measures to protect Indian elections from the kind of influencing that’s been shown to be possible with recent revelations that political consultant Cambridge Analytica (CA) harvested Facebook data of millions and used it to subvert poll outcomes.

According to a senior official aware of the development at the Election Commission of India, which conducts elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the body will discuss steps required to ensure that “forces that subvert the electoral process are neutralised”.

“We have to ensure that polling is not adversely affected by undue influence on the electorate by manipulating social media,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The commission, including the chief election commissioner, the two election commissioners and senior officials, meet every week on Tuesday to take up poll-related issues.

“Anything which affects elections is on the commission’s radar. At the next meeting on Tuesday, we will look at the dimensions of the issue (data harvesting) that need to be analysed and on what points action will have to be taken,” the official said.

Both Facebook and CA are at the centre of a controversy over allegations of harvesting and use of personal data of 50 million people on the social media platform to try and influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote in the UK.

The election commission’s social media cell is also expected to draw up a report on allegations by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the Congress party’s campaign in the recent Gujarat assembly poll was managed by CA.

The Congress has denied the charge, which was repeated by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday.