Facebook India has grown too powerful without safeguards
It’s time India moves to put in place legal safeguards to contain the potential harm that Internet giants such as Facebook Inc. can cause, experts say , amid a raging scandal over access gained by political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica to user data on the social media network. India is a key market for Facebook with 217 million people using the platform every month.
Concerns centre around protection of user privacy and freedom of speech, harassment by Internet trolls, spread of misinformation and fake news, said Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer who is part of Save The Internet , a group of individuals and non-government organisations fighting to preserve net neutrality. It’s time to take stock of the concerns and the sufficiency of India’s legal framework to address them, Gupta said.
“Companies like Facebook have grown too big and too powerful without adequate legal safeguards,” he said.
On Thursday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to stop the misuse of user data on its site to manipulate voters in India,Brazil and the US. The social media network is under scrutiny after a whistleblower alleged that London-based Cambridge Analytica accessed user data to prepare voter profiles that helped Donald Trump win the US presidential election in 2016.
A 21-yearold woman was stabbed to death by her father on Thursday in Malappuram district of north Kerala a day before her wedding to a man from another community, police said on Friday.
According to the police, Athira had been dating Brijesh, and though their family members strongly opposed their relationship, they had been persuaded to come around.
On Thursday, Athira’s father, who was inebriated, got into an argument with the girl and attacked her. She ran into a neighbour’s house for help but he chased her and stabbed her with a kitchen knife, police said.
Athira, a lab assistant at Manjeri Medical College Hospital, suffered a deep wound on her chest and died on the spot. The father tried to escape but locals apprehended him and handed over to the police.
Police said they had earlier brokered an agreement when both the families opposed their wedding but the couple insisted on living together.
NEW DELHI: THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: