The Centre is ‘examining’ the responses submitted by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, a government official said on Tuesday. The responses may be made public in a few days.
“The responses of the two companies are being examined and the government is also reflecting on the global developments because many of these players are common and the concerns are common,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
Facebook has drawn intense global criticism from users and governments over the data leak scandal that hit millions of users. The Indian government had questioned the social media giant and UK-based data miner Cambridge Analytica, following the breach, which Facebook admitted, had ‘potentially affected’ nearly 5.62 lakh people in India.
Information of over 80 million Facebook users was allegedly harvested by data analytics and political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, leading to a global backlash against the company.
The government has said that any attempt by social media sites, including Facebook, to influence India’s electoral process through undesirable means will not be tolerated and if need be strict actions shall be taken.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked MeitY to come out with suitable action plan so that the Facebook-CA kind of episodes do not recur.
Meanwhile, Facebook on Monday said it had partnered with Boom, a fact-checking website to combat false news in Karnataka during the polls on May 12.