Facebook

The staggered election schedule shows that EC has made light of the harm fake news can do to the electoral outcome

Facebook said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million.
Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer shared the higher number as part of a corporate blog post about steps the company was taking to restrict the personal data available to third-party app developers.
Most of the 87 million people were in the United States and the United Kingdom, Schroepfer wrote in the blog post.

Big internet companies and small software developers alike are likely to face scrutiny over how they share customer information in the wake of the scandal involving Facebook Inc and the British election consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

"As IT and Law Minister of India, let me make it very very clear, we fully support freedom of press and freedom of speech and free exchange of ideas on social media, but any attempt -- covert or overt -- on social media including, Facebook, and trying to influence India's electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor tolerated," Mr Prasad said.