Thread by @epw_in

#EPWConversations: Today, @digitaldutta, one of our panellists for #DataSocieties, will be talking about data and elections from @epw_in's handle. We invite you to join the conversation and ask questions.

Data is being used to influence us, and our society everywhere. Data is being weaponised during elections now, to spread misinformation using micro-targeting. This essentially involves influencing every individual, uniquely based on their personal data. | @digitaldutta

Politicians have always influenced voters based on their caste, religion and class, and this identity politics has been important for communities to claim their rights as well. This is changing, with new networks to influence voters using their personal data. | @digitaldutta

@digitaldutta With micro-targeting, politicians are influencing people uniquely with misinformation and disinformation. You are being influenced with fake news based on your personal beliefs. This is where the IT cells & firms like #CambridgeAnalytica come into play. | @digitaldutta

The use of bots, paid ads and users, to influence narratives that help political parties has been well documented by several fact-checking reporters in India. But the extent by which these messages are shared in closed networks like Whatsapp has not been mapped. | @digitaldutta

Content that is pushed onto voters is researched, based on popular narratives on ground. The virtual has become a reflection of offline politics. This doesn't mean that everything is reflected, though with every new user coming online, this connection increases. | @digitaldutta

The social media groups that political parties are creating, and the content that is being shared on them is based on the identities of individuals. This makes it important for political parties to continuously collect data to know your personal politics. | @digitaldutta

@digitaldutta A ex-BJP analyst @ShivamShankarS documented how political parties collect personal data from publicly available data, voter surveys, and missed calls, in his book "How to Win an Indian Election." Electricity data was used to understand your socio-economic status. | @digitaldutta

But this data collection is not limited to privately collected data from surveys or campaigns. Political parties are increasingly using government data. In 2019 elections @JaiTDP was found with voter and #Aadhaar data from two states likely leaked from inside government databases

Increased collection of voter IDs to find duplicate voters by the government during NPR 2015 and #Aadhaar voter ID linkages have ended up in hands of political parties. In case of @JaiTDP they used data collected from the Andhra Pradesh household survey as well.

@digitaldutta The reason why voter ID is part of #NPR is political too, and the ECI intends to bring a new law to do it again without a data protection law in place. This collection of voter data along with #Aadhaar is harmful and is excessive data collection.
financialexpress.com/aadhaar-card/n…

@digitaldutta The extent of data sharing between government departments and the ECI to link #Aadhaar with voter IDs, to create large databases without informing voters, is documented in these RTI documents.
archive.org/details/ECI_Vo… | @digitaldutta

@digitaldutta The ECI algorithms of comparing #Aadhaar and voter ID data to find the so called duplicate voters involved sharing voter data to the government databases. This is a dangerous precedent.
archive.org/details/APECIS… | @digitaldutta

@digitaldutta Thank you for joining us for #EPWConversations. We look forward to seeing you on 7 February 2020 for our panel discussions on #DataSocieties. To register, visit: bit.ly/30TDTjX