The Centre on Thursday announced that the CBI would probe the Cambridge Analytica data breach case and investigate whether personal data from voters and Facebook users were compromised by the British political consultant.
Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said the CBI will probe whether the British firm violated Indian laws.
Prasad informed the Rajya Sabha that the company denied to the Indian Government that data from Indians was breached, but that contradicted information received from Facebook. The BJP and the Congress have accused each other of using Cambridge Analytica’s services, but both have denied any link to the firm.
Prasad said notices were being immediately issued to the two companies and their response has been sought.
“The Government has entrusted this issue to be investigated by the CBI for possible violation of Information Technology Act, 2000 and IPC,” Prasad said during a debate in the Rajya Sabha on a calling attention motion notice on the misuse of social media platforms.
The IT Minister said it is suspected that Cambridge Analytica may have been involved in illegally obtaining data of Indians which could be misused. The Minister said there were subsequent reports that users’ data was “illegally accessed by hardware manufacturers who had tie-ups with Facebook. In regard to this issue, Facebook has reported that they are not aware of any misuse of information, including Indian users’ information.”
“Facebook responded that they will streamline their internal processes regarding handling of personal data. They stated that the case of Cambridge Analytica was a case of breach of trust. They promised to take various other steps to ensure that such breaches do not recur,” Prasad said.
However, he said, Cambridge Analytica gave an initial response that data of Indians was not breached but this was not in conformity with what was reported by Facebook. “Cambridge Analytica also did not respond to a subsequent notice,” Prasad shared with the members in the Upper House.
Responding to the members’ concerns during the calling attention motion notice on the misuse of social media platforms and propagation of fake news causing unrest and violence, Prasad said the Government is seriously considering that through appropriate rules all social media platforms should be required to locate their grievance officer in India.
“The duty of such grievance officer should cover not only to receive grievances on real time basis but also to inform law enforcement agencies,” Prasad said.
WhatsApp, he said, has informed that it will introduce fact-checking and fake news verification mechanisms to help people check the veracity of content on the platform.
Earlier, members including leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad had raised serious concern over the incidents relating to abuse of social media leading to mob lynchings, with some of them even accusing the Government of inaction.
Prasad said the Government planned to issue directives in public interest requiring all social media platforms to ensure that they “do not become vehicles for promoting hatred, terrorism, money laundering, mob violence and rumour mongering.”
“These platforms should provide technological solutions so that verified fake news and provocative messages can be filtered by technical solutions. They should also bring in a more effective mechanism for receiving grievances and report to the law enforcement agencies. They should seek to provide the facility of verifying fake news on the platform itself,” he said.
In addition, the Government will also promote initiatives to increase awareness among the citizens to become adept in noticing fake news and to avoid becoming a party to viral circulation of fake news, he said.
“A campaign to educate school children about the misuse of social media for propagation of false news will be taken up. The Common Service Centres will also be engaged in the task of promoting this message among people especially in rural areas,” Prasad said.
“The State Governments will also be requested to join in this effort to make the citizens more aware to prevent the use and abuse of social media. In this regard I will be writing to all Chief Ministers,” Prasad said.
During the debate on the issue, V Muraleedharan of the BJP said the “sinister designs of some people” have led to large-scale violence. Azad said it was a matter of “shame” that such incidents happened in a civilised nation like India and tarnish its image within as well as abroad. He said 40 lynching incidents have taken place this year so far in 13 States across the country based on rumours.
RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha said the messages on social media run on television channels, thereby inciting violence. He also mentioned the incidents involving trolling of senior Ministers on social media.
CPI leader D Raja said social media was being used to create strains among human relations and conflicts have increased manifold. He claimed that right-wing organisations spread falsehoods to intimidate their opponents. Derek O’ Brien (TMC) alleged that the BJP came to power in 2014 used social media to condition the minds of people.