NEW DELHI: The government entered into a new row with Congress on Wednesday. The ruling party accused that the Congress party has been in touch with the data firm, Cambridge Analytica with the motive of influencing the elections in the country. The government also warned the social media giant, Facebook. The union law and IT minister clearly stated that strict actions will be taken against Facebook if it would be found using undesirable means to influence the electoral process in India.
The controversy started when some senior officials at the facebook claimed some illicit activities have been undertaken inside the social media. It has been alleged that CA is accessing the profiles of many Facebook users in India and is using their personal information to manipulate the elections. Prasad on Wednesday questioned Congress that will its victory in the elections depend on the data theft and data manipulation.
Prasad question Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his connection with Cambridge Analytica. He quoted the media reports and alleged that Congress is planning to take help from Cambridge Analytica in 2019 general elections.
Talking about the recent Gujarat and north-east elections and the upcoming elections in Karnataka, he questioned Congress about how much data it has provided to CA.
The Union Law and IT minister said that he supports the free exchange of ideas but any attempt to use the personal information of the social media users to influence electoral process in India will not be tolerated.
Hitting on Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg he said that India has got stringent powers when comes to IT act. He made it clear that the government will not hesitate from using them, including summoning the Facebook CEO to India. He added that the government of India welcomes the facebook profile but data theft of its Indian users will not be tolerated.
Facebook is being used by more than twenty crore users in India, which makes India facebook’s largest market outside the United States of America. But these recent allegation has resulted in a plunge in Facebook’s stock in the country.
Answering the question that whether the government will start any probe in this matter he said that India has a very strong mechanism and anybody involved in data theft won’t be spared. He further added,”but today, this is very stern observation I gave, let my warning be heard across the Atlantic in California”