It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica harvested data of Indian Facebook users in order to influence elections in the country.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against UK based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for allegedly harvesting data of Indian Facebook users illegally. Earlier in 2018, CBI had launched a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Facebook for the same. After which the CBI had asked for detailed information from the two companies regarding the alleged theft.
It is alleged that Global Science Research Ltd harvested data of Indian Facebook users illegally from the social media giant Facebook and passed it on to the data mining and analysis company, Cambridge Analytica, the officials said. In 2018, CBI had received a letter from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology who had sought a probe in the matter.
The Minister for Law and Justice and IT had said in 2018 that regarding the issue of misuse of social media and fake news they have "entrusted the issue to be investigated by the CBI for possible violation of Information Technology Act, 2000 and IPC." Cambridge Analytica had also faced allegations that it had received illegal harvested data of 87 million people and used it to influence US 2016 presidential elections and help win Donald Trump.
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