Prasad issues warning over poll rigging via social media

The comments come amid worry that data of users on web services such as Facebook and Twitter can be mined and misused in order to influence poll outcomes, a concern stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The minister also met messaging service Whatsapp’s global head last week to convey the concerns over the spread of fake news in the country.

In March, Cambridge Analytica was found to have misused a partnership with Facebook to glean user data in order to create psychological and political profiles that could then lead to targeted influence campaigns. The company is believed to have used such tactics in 2016 for the Brexit vote and the US presidential elections.

Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said after the scandal that the platform was changing the way it shared data with third-party applications, and apologised for the “breach of trust”.

Data of Indian users was also believed to have been harvested, and Prasad told Parliament last month that the Central Bureau of Investigations will investigate if any information relating to Indian voters was illegally obtained or misused.

Prasad also told the G20 meeting, which included his counterparts from 18 others countries and the European Union, that India was taking all possible steps to make the cyberspace safe. The meeting was held on August 23 and 24.

In his speech, the minister spoke in connection with a raging debate on privacy, saying “privacy cannot prohibit innovation nor can privacy become the