Data leak: Prasad seeks Rahul's apology

New Delhi: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today sought an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly using Cambridge Analytica data to swing poll results and said “probity” demands that he should promise not to manipulate voters in the future.

Prasad said on Twitter that Cambridge Analytica’s role in manipulating elections is clear and Facebook has given an assurance “to stop it and maintain integrity of India’s elections”.

Using Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s apology for failing to protect the social media giant’s user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal as a handle, Prasad said, “probity demands that @RahulGandhi should apologise & promise not to manipulate voters and divide the society in future”.

Last week, Zuckerberg admitted making a “huge mistake” as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a figure higher than the previous estimate of 50 million.

Yesterday, Zuckerberg apologised to the US Congress and took personal responsibility for “not doing enough” to protect Facebook’s users’ private data from being misused and manipulated.

There have been allegations that Cambridge Analytica data has been used by parties in India too.