Facebook is a nightmare straight from Black Mirror: Episode 3

Episode 3: The Indian Angle

Although a little late, here is part 3 of the Facebook fiasco series, wherein I discuss the actions that CA and SCL have taken in India and their effects in elections. To know what the fiasco is all about, check out Part 1, and to know the political impact around the world and how it came to be known, check out Part 2.

Many people know of India as the largest democracy in the world. Being in line with that, when elections are held here, it is rightly treated as the big deal that it is. But with the elections come the corresponding duties such as regulating the elections. There are many instances of bribery and other nefarious activities taking place during elections. There is always the murky after-taste of vote bank politics and it dividing the citizens of India.

Amidst all these less than savoury claims, comes the allegations (and even some truths) about the involvement of Cambridge Analytica in the India election.

Does it really have a presence in India?

As stated in the previous article, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) is the parent firm of Cambridge Analytica (CA). They have a subsidiary company known as the Strategic Communication Pvt. Ltd. (SCL India) in India; with the 4 directors being Alexander James Nix, Alexander Waddington Oakes, Amrish Kumar Tyagi and Avneesh Kumar Rai. Both the Alexanders are the co-founders of SCL in UK back in 2005. Tyagi is the son of JD (U) Leader K.C. Tyagi – which shows the level of impartiality undertaken by this group. Avneesh Kumar Rai is an election consultant with politicians irrespective of their parties since 1984.

Here is a short timeline of events of how Rai ensured the entry of SCL to India.

• 2009: In Lok Sabha elections, Rai who was working with BJP Leader Mahesh Sharma, was confused by the loss of the seat. Thus he got in touch with Dan Muresan of SCL UK. They conducted a video that listed the reasons for Sharma’s loss. Being impressed by their methods, Rai wanted to work more with them.
• 2010: Muresan came to Delhi, and wanted to collaborate with Rai as Rai had been involved in creating a database of households in many states, which included details such as their names, caste, political preferences etc. This is how SCL UK started working with Ovleno  Business Intelligence.
• 2011: Nix, Muresan, their team from UK along with Tyagi and Rai started contacting politicians and selling their services.
• Nix was obsessed with Congress and making a foray into Indian elections from there. But Rai was confused after a couple of months to find that questions which sounded like they were anti-Congress being asked in the database survey.
• Rai also overheard a conversation between a member and an Indian-American woman of Gujarati origin who had flown down to India, where she introduced herself as being from the client’s side. Until then, as far as Rai knew, they were working for no client and were just collecting data to pitch their services to Congress. It was peculiar that they were collecting data from Congress only to campaign against them. When he confronted Nix, he said he did it to make money.
• During this time, Muresan who was in Kenya died under suspicious circumstances and his role was taken up by Nix.
• The work slowly fizzled out as Rai refused to part with the data and Nix concentrated on the more profitable US elections.

Wylie’s Comments:

Recently, Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on the operations of Cambridge Analytica. As part of the same, he was deposing before the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British Parliament. Wylie responded as follows when questioned about CA’s participation in India:

“They (Cambridge Analytica) worked extensively in India. They have an office in India. I believe their client was Congress, but I know that they have done all kinds of projects. I don’t remember a national project but I know regionally. India’s so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there.”

He also offered to provide “documentation” on India.

Although Congress is said to be one of the clients, it is unsure whether there are other clients. Reports suggest that Nix was in talks with several parties and wanted to design an electoral strategy. Tyagi, who is the son of JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi could have given input to them too.

Statement by Facebook:

On April 5^th, Facebook released a statement saying that the data of over 5.6 lakhs users was harvested and shared with Cambridge Analytica. According to the numbers released by Facebook, India is the 7^th worst affected country in terms of data loss.

Will the Facebook data mined from Indian users really affect the elections?

It is true that in the US, it may have had a significant effect on people when it came to targeted advertising based on elections. But according to the survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in 2016, there is not sufficient data of Indians in Facebook yet. Only 19% of young voters have high access to social media. Which means that 81% do not use social media regularly; or even if they use Facebook, it is not often enough to give out important profile-worthy information.

According to Vivan Marwaha, the founder of Vantage Analytics:

Ultimately, in order for Cambridge Analytica to truly make a difference and decide elections in India, it will need to machine-learn caste equations, religious tensions, gender relations, welfare networks, economic anxieties, urban challenges, and the countless other factors that the Indian voter considers before going to the ballot box.

Fortunately, it is not there yet.

So what does this mean?

It means that although data was taken, not much of it must have been useful to the companies with regard to profiling the people in a way which would be helpful for the elections. This is not because they didn’t have the abilities, but because India is still developing in its use of social media. Although it seems like good news now, the fact that India has been growing in leaps and bounds in these aspects means that it is more than possible to have a wider impact in the future.

Until then be safe with your data.

Thank you for sticking with me till the end of this series!

Net Neutrality Debate: Everything you need to know

In the wake of FCC’s decision to repeal Net Neutrality, this article looks into the pros and cons of net neutrality. It also gives a view of the approach to Net Neutrality by various jurisdictions apart from the US.

What is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality refers to the equal treatment of all data on the internet by both the government and the internet service providers (or ISPs for short). There must be no discrimination of data on the basis of content, platform or source. It is also known as Free or Open Internet, and is seen as an online representation of free speech.

Digital Information World Infographic

The reason net neutrality is a trending topic currently is because on 14th December, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led by Chairman Ajit Pai decided to take away regulations that ensure equal access to Internet. This act, predictably, brought about a tidal wave of protests by citizens and activists fighting for their right to free speech through an open internet.

Arguments in favor of Net Neutrality

There are many arguments for retaining the 2015’s Order on Protecting and Promoting Open Internet. Listed below are a couple of popular and main ideas for protesting the repeal of net neutrality.

1. ISP’s like AT&T; Verizon and Comcast would be able to decide on what data is published and what isn’t. This would have a major impact on what information is shown to the world.
2. People equate net neutrality with the basic human right to free speech. Thus repealing it will be equivalent to attacking free speech.
3. Net neutrality has afforded us the opportunity to bring about social movements to an unprecedented number of people. Repealing net neutrality will diminish the effect of such social movements.
4. Repealing net neutrality is perceived to be a huge market deterrent for start-ups and SMEs.

Arguments in favor of FCC’s Repeal

1. Taking away the 2015 FCC orders will help in improving competition amongst the ISP’s; which will in turn improve the quality of services provided. Internet giants such as Google, Facebook and Netflix will no longer have a big enough control in how we use the internet.
2. Lesser regulations would allow for increase in investments in rural broadbands and under-served communities.
3. Net neutrality although keeping data discrimination at a safe distance from the ISP’s may also end up giving the Government the right to monitor broadband connections of cable and telecom companies. Although there are many people, including entrepreneur Joshua Steimie, who believe this, the veracity of the same remains unchecked.
4. Many of the telecom companies are trying to differentiate between the concept of net neutrality and the FCC’s 2015 reclassification, showing support for the former while rejecting the latter.

TRAI’s take on Net Neutrality

The debate on net neutrality in India is relatively new. It started with Facebook’s Free Basics introduced in 2015. Free Basics would bring affordable access to selected ISP’s to less developed countries. This sparked a row on the right to choose ISP’s and Facebook’s violation of net neutrality.

Since then, through varied protests and media coverage, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) finally sought the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 3rd March, 2016. After drafting a consultation paper and giving chances for comments on the same, the TRAI on 28th November, 2017 published its recommendations on Net Neutrality. In the letter to DoT, it also stated that it would be working on issues such as privacy, security and ownership of data in view of the Supreme Court’s decision.

TRAI under the chairmanship of R.K. Sharma supported the basic principles of an open internet and recognized the rules in place for equal treatment of all data. The recommendations stated that:

In spirit, the idea that an Internet service provider should treat all content, sites and platforms equally is already encapsulated in the licensing terms and conditions applicable to service providers in India.

Net Neutrality in EU and UK

The UK and the EU is governed by strong laws protecting net neutrality. UK ISP’s were voluntarily committing towards an open internet. On 15th October, stricter EU wide regulations on net neutrality were adopted. These regulations clearly state that all traffic must be treated equally.

Although, the freedom for internet is safe now in the UK because of the EU Regulations, the question remains as to its fate post complete implementation of Brexit. But the chances of UK retaining the same policy is high. It recently announced that high speed internet is a legal right. On 19th January, UK also restated (along with France) its commitment and support to the principles of net neutrality. 

Current Position in the US

Many tech-giants such as Google and Facebook have talked out about their displeasure over the repeal of net neutrality. Apart from them, attorneys general for 21 states and District of Columbia have sued the FCC’s decision on repeal.

But currently, the debate surrounding net neutrality in the US seems to be more political. The people who are for and against the 2015 FCC Reclassification guidelines, more or less have a similar stance on net neutrality. Despite appearances, majority of Americans of all political parties support the concept of net neutrality. The problem arising now is on the differing opinions of enforcement of net neutrality. While supporters of the FCC 2015 Open Internet Rules want a government directive for equal treatment; those against prefer a light regulation system.

What remains to be seen is whether these are the only two options available to ensure net neutrality, or if some sort of regulations that both Republicans and Democrats can agree upon will be adopted.

What are your thoughts?