BJP Lying Factory, Tweets Rahul Gandhi on Cambridge Analytica

Both the BJP and the Congress have been trading charges, accusing each other for having links with the controversial firm.

New Delhi, Mar 23: Congress president Rahul Gandhi seems to be brushing up his sparring skills. Just when the nation was agog over Union IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s allegation at Thursday’s press conference that the Congress had links with the beleaguered Cambridge Analytica, Rahul came back with a sharp rebuttal later in the day. Cambridge Analytica (CA), a data mining firm, is already in the eye of a storm for its role in the Brexit referendum in the UK and also the victory of Donald Trump in the US elections.

Reports have suggested that some political parties in India may also have availed the services of this data mining firm to win elections. In fact, the India wing of CA had, on its website, claimed that both the BJP and the Congress were among its clients as the firm provided “election management” services. Rahul’s tweet suggests that the BJP minister threw a salvo at the Congress to turn the public gaze away from the real story of CA being hired to sabotage his party instead. Both the BJP and the Congress have been trading charges, accusing each other for having links with the controversial firm.

BJP lying factory at work:

Journalist set to break big story on how Cambridge Analytica (CA) was paid to infiltrate and sabotage the Congress in 2012.

BJP rushes Cabinet Minister to lie and spin fake news:Congress worked with CA!

Real story vanishes.https://t.co/zMX7VJAAfa

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 23, 2018

Earlier, Union Minister Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had alleged that the Congress had taken the services of the data mining firm in preparation for the 2019 general elections.

A CA employee had, over the last weekend, revealed how the firm got the data via an app that profiles users. While not many people had downloaded the app, it still got the data of ‘Facebook friends’ of these people. If reports are anything to go by, CA managed to get the data of 50 million users across the world, without their consent. These people were then targeted according to their preferences.

Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg has since apologised, saying that the social site “doesn’t deserve to serve you,” after the scandal, that reveals how data of over 50 million FB users was stolen, broke out.