Thread by @SaketGokhale

Mystery of Facebook India & Election Commission:

There were a bunch of mysterious happening in 2018 & 2019 pertaining to Facebook India & the Election Commission.

These raise concerns on the integrity of elections itself & on Facebook India's interference in polls.

Thread 👇

In June 2017, the Election Commission began a partnership with Facebook India for a voter awareness campaign.

This partnership was launched by Facebook India's Ankhi Das together with then-Chief Election Commissioner Dr.Nasim Zaidi.

Things then got dodgy in a year.

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A year later, on 23rd March 2018, then-Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat announced that the ECI was reviewing its partnership with Facebook India over concerns of data breaches which could affect free & fair elections.

And then there was a sudden twist.

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Now we don't know what happened in 4 days but on 27th March, the ECI said that it would continue its partnership with Facebook India "despite aberrations".

The "aberrations" referred to the extensive data breaches that ECI had accused Facebook of just 4 days ago.

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Then, just 2 days later on March 29, several ECI officials were reported as saying that ties with Facebook India must be reviewed after the Cambridge Analytica revelations in the US on election manipulation.

Sadly, the partnership between ECI & Facebook India remained.

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Then, in Feb 2019 (before the Lok Sabha polls), an Election Commission panel recommended that political advertisements on Facebook, Google, and Twitter must be pre-approved by the ECI.

A PIL regarding this was also filed in the Bombay HC by Sudhir Suryawanshi.

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In the PIL proceedings, Bombay HC asked Facebook & Google to submit their affidavits on the issue of pre-approval of political ads.

In Google's affidavit, they agreed & said they'd only accept ads pre-approved by the ECI.

Facebook India strangely took a different stand.

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Facebook India merely said that it'd require political advertisers to confirm their identity & location, give details about who placed the ad, & add a disclaimer.

It DID NOT agree with the ECI proposal of carrying only pre-approved ads.

The PIL remains pending.

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- Why did the ECI change its stance on partnering with Facebook India within 5 days after first saying it was concerned about data breaches & electoral integrity?

- Why did Facebook India refuse to carry only ECI-approved political ads & content?

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How much has Facebook under Ankhi Das helped BJP during the elections?

Why did @SpokespersonECI merely stand by & watch?

With reports of Ankhi Das' close links to BJP, her lobbying for them & hate speech, how much disinformation did FB India allow during elections?

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PS: This sounds incredibly worrisome considering what has happened with Facebook in the US elections & what they've been doing in India.

PPS: Some links/sources:

1. huffingtonpost.in/entry/election…

2. livelaw.in/news-updates/n…

3. livelaw.in/news-updates/f…