Amid Facebook Probe, Government Says Will Take ''Strong Action If Need Be''

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today asked the Congress to come clean on its inks with Cambridge Analytica.

All India | Posted by | Updated: March 21, 2018 14:29 IST
Amid Facebook Probe, Government Says Will Take ''Strong Action If Need Be''
Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today asked the Congress to come clean on its inks with Cambridge Analytica that is in the middle of a huge controversy over a massive data breach and delivered a harsh warning to Facebook as well.

Facebook is facing the heat after Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting company, was accused of harvesting data of up to 50 million Facebook users without permission and using the data to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.

Mr Prasad referred to news reports that indicated the firm at the centre of the data breach had been in talks with the Congress party.
"This is not just a question of Congress Party's association with a rogue data analysis firm but it is a question of free and fair elections in India and democratic values of our country," Mr Prasad told reporters.

The Congress quickly delivered a sharp rejoinder.

"News about Congress engaged/engaging with Cambridge Analytica is absolutely false," Congress's digital communication head Divya Spandana tweeted.

The Congress wasn't the only one on the government's radar. So was Facebook.

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Mr Prasad said the government was all for use of social media "and it has empowered every citizen who can ask us questions directly now".

But abuse of social media that too by using foreign firms will not be acceptable, he said.
 

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