EC mulls reviewing its association with Facebook

New Delhi: Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad held discussions with senior ministry officials to explore steps to ensure that consumers data on social media is not misused to influence elections.

The meeting held with top IT ministry officials on Thursday lasted for over two hours and deliberated the long-term solutions to address the issue.

The IT ministry is looking into the issue of misuse of data, and exploring steps that can be taken to ensure protection of user information against misuse, without curbing the social media offtake in the country.

According to sources, the Election Commission is also going to discuss the issue of data harvesting and misuse of social media platform like Facebook to influence voters in its meeting soon. The commission is also looking to review its association with Facebook to encourage enrolment of young voters.

The EC will coordinate with enforcement agencies for suggestions to prevent “unlawful” activities such as attempts to influence polls, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat said. “The EC secretariat will be coordinating with enforcement agencies to come up with suggestions on what needs to be done to prevent such unlawful activities which adversely effect the Indian elections,” he told a news agency.

A data scandal has erupted after a whistle blower revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to Trump’s presidential campaign, accessed personal data from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, and might have kept that data even after Facebook told the company to delete it. Cambridge Analytica (CA) had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users via a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.

Over the past several days, Facebook has been facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and calls for legislative testimonies in the US and Europe.