India on Wednesday warned social media giant Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of "stringent action" including summoning him over "misuse" of data to allegedly influence electoral process.
"As Law Minister of India let me make it very, very clear. We fully support freedom of press, freedom of speech and expression and free exchange of ideas on social media. But any attempt to covert or overt by the social media including Facebook of trying to influence India's electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor tolerated," Union Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media. "Let Facebook note it very clearly.
And if need be stringent action shall be undertaken." The warning comes amid reports that a data analytics firm that worked with US President Donald Trump's election team allegedly harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters to influence their choice at the ballot box