Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Facebook says it is committed to upholding integrity of elections around the world

For the past few days social networking giant Facebook has been embroiled in a controversy involving Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics and political consulting firm with ties to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

According to reports, the firm improperly obtained and exploited personal data from 50 million Facebook users for the 2016 US elections.


Reacting to this news, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media firm was committed to upholding the integrity of elections around the world.

“And we have a responsibility to do this, not only for the 2018 midterms in the U.S., which are going to be a huge deal this year and that’s just a huge focus for us but there’s a big election in India this year, there’s a big election in Brazil, there are big elections around the world, and you can bet that we are really committed to doing everything that we need to make sure that the integrity of those elections on Facebook is secured,” Zuckerberg told CNN in an interview.

Meanwhile, Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), the Indian arm of Cambridge Analytica, has named the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party as its clients. On Wednesday, both the parties accused each other of using the data firm to obtain unauthorised personal information.

Interestingly, OBI's website was suspended shortly after the fight between the two parties surfaced.

OBI is run by the Amrish Tyagi, son of Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi.

Amrish, in an interview to NDTV, said his firm had worked for the BJP in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, and was hired by the Youth Congress in Jharkhand between 2010 and 2011.

The Indian government is reportedly set to launch and enquiry to find out if Facebook has had a role in unfairly influencing elections in the country.

More For You

Starmer

Keir Starmer speaks to soldiers as he visits the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam ahead of the NATO summit on June 24, 2025 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Getty Images

Why ex-NATO chief thinks UK is 'not safe'

UK IS "not safe" and its national security is "in peril", former NATO chief George Robertson is set to warn, pointing to gaps in defence spending, delays in planning and what he calls a lack of preparedness.

In a speech in Salisbury, southern England, Robertson is expected to say: "We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe," and describe the Iran war as a "rude wake-up call".

Keep ReadingShow less