Ravi Shankar Prasad Threatens Mark Zuckerberg With Court Summons If Indian User Data Is Leaked
The IT Minister insists, India will not tolerate data theft of its citizens. Even Mark Zuckerberg isn't above the law.
With Facebook currently facing the consequences of its massive data breach scandal with Cambridge Analytica, Information Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also decided to weigh in on the issue, in what seemed to be a very strange power play.
¡°If Facebook is found to be involved in data breach of Indians, we will take very strict action against them including the summoning of Mark Zuckerberg to India,¡± Prasad told reporters in New Delhi today.
The comments followed even as Zuckerberg and Facebook COO and PR chief Sheryl Sandberg maintain their silence over mounting pressure for them to come clean and explain what really happened with Facebook's user data.
¡°Today, 20 crore Indians are on Facebook,¡± he said. ¡°If the data of the Indians is shared through Facebook, we have the stringent IT Act. We can even summon Facebook officials for data sharing.¡±
It's important for us in India to track what happened with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook for multiple reasons. Here's how I'm thinking about it.
¡ª Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) March 19, 2018
If data is the new oil, then it just caught fire and is polluting democracies.
Others on Twitter are also voicing their opinion on the issue, wondering if all the skepticism against Facebook is actually real or happening in India.
There¡¯s seemingly zero Facebook skepticism in India? Barring of course, the reporters who cover technology and policy folks. Amazing.
¡ª Venkat Ananth (@venkatananth) March 20, 2018
Sorry but is it just me who missed the delete Facebook thing in India? Did it happen?
¡ª Ashish K. Mishra (@akm1410) March 20, 2018
If Facebook tries to get in India's way https://t.co/K2VVMIPFMC
¡ª Rohan Venkataramakrishnan (@RohanV) March 21, 2018
¡°We respect the freedom of press, but we do not tolerate the misuse of social media in influencing electoral process in India. We want to warn Facebook that it will not be tolerated," Prasad added.
Facebook is currently the target of massive backlash for Cambridge¡¯s Analytica¡¯s reckless harvesting and use of Facebook user data, without their consent. Actions that were made possible in part because of Facebook¡¯s lax data sharing policies with developers on its platform. The British research firm gathered data from up to 50 million Facebook users to profile and influence voters for Trump¡¯s 2016 campaign, and may have also had a hand in other major initiatives like the pro-Brexit movement.
Facebook has since banned Cambridge Analytica from is platform (albeit maybe two years too late), even as policymakers across the world reconsider regulations regarding citizen¡¯s digital privacy.
