Indian IT Minister Warns Facebook Against Election Tampering; Zuckerberg Vows To Ensure Integrity

Amidst the ongoing controversy over data breach which involves Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, Indian IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has declared that the government will take “strong actions” against Facebook if the need arises.

The union information technology minister warned Mark Zuckerberg against any attempts made to influence the country’s electoral process through unfair means.

He further added that if any data theft of Indians has occurred with the collusion of Facebook, the government of India will not tolerate it and can even use legal power to “summon” Facebook’s CEO.

At present, Indian law doesn’t have data protection laws, but experts have hinted that the IT Act has extended provisions that could be invoked in case a data breach occurs.

How will Facebook prevent election tampering?

Zuckerberg, in an interview with CNN, has assured that Facebook is already working on prevention of foreign interference and fake news during elections.

The results of which were seen in a major French election where they identified several Russian bots on the platform and removed them ahead of elections.

However, during elections in Alabama last year, their new AI tools detected several fake accounts coming from different places.

Facebook’s CEO promised to work harder to prevent countries like Russia from further meddling in elections as well as trolls and other people who spread fake news.

With the upcoming elections in India this year, Zuckerberg said, “We are really committed to doing everything that we need to, to make sure that the integrity of those elections on Facebook is secured.”

 Also Read: Zuckerberg Facing Heat After Multiple Investigations Into Facebook Data Breach