Archives for April 2018

On Tuesday, several media organisations and lakhs of voters across Karnataka received a ‘candidates list’ allegedly from the Congress via WhatsApp.
The ruling Congress in Karnataka has been hit by several pieces of election-related fake news in the last few days and the Grand Old Party is pointing fingers at the BJP, accusing it of spreading fake news fearing “certain defeat” in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held on May 12.

On Tuesday, several media organisations and lakhs of voters across Karnataka received a ‘candidates list’ allegedly from the Congress via WhatsApp.

The ‘list’ had 132 names and many fell for it as the Central Election Committee of the Congress is currently discussing candidate selection in New Delhi. Some channels even aired the list. It was only after the ‘list’ was sent to the Congress office that top leaders of the party scrutinised it and dismissed it as fake.

The list even had the signature of top Congress leader Oscar Fernandes. But the creator of this fake list seemed unaware that Fernandes is seriously ill and has been admitted to Sir Ganga Ram hospital in New Delhi. He is no longer the authorised signatory for such lists.

The ‘list’ mentioned Congress leader in Lok Sabha M Mallikarjuna Kharge as one of the candidates. It even claimed that Kharge had replaced his son and the state’s IT and Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge in Chitapur seat.

Alarmed by the fake news, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted and asked people not to fall for it. He also asked people to not endorse the products of “fake factory”.
The AICC secretary in charge of Karnataka and former MP Madhu Yashki Goud was more vocal and directly held the BJP IT Cell responsible for it. Threatening a criminal action against the BJP, he said that the saffron party had “mastered the art of fake news to misguide the people”.

Just three days ago, the Congress was battling another fake news wherein a ‘confidential’ report was doing the rounds. It was purportedly sent by the chief of state intelligence and advised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah not to contest from Chamundeshwari in Mysore district. It was ‘signed’ by the intelligence chief and top IPS officer AM Prasad. But here too, the creators of the fake report did not do their homework.

AM Prasad is already a DGP-rank officer, but the ‘secret’ note mentioned his designation as ADGP. Secondly, the address of the Intelligence Office in Bengaluru it mentioned was wrong.

A senior police officer clarified that such reports are always submitted verbally or orally and never in writing.

Once again, Siddaramaiah tweeted and asked people not to fall for ‘fake news’.

The Congress has expressed fears of a flood of fake news targeting its leaders in the next one month. The BJP is yet to react to it.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that a dangerous and false binary was emerging in the country’s political discourse which could be a danger to the democratic system.

Addressing the first Prof. S.B. Rangnekar Memorial lecture at his alma mater Panjab University here, the Congress leader said that it was time to ask ourselves if we were losing patience with democracy 70 years after getting independence.

“We need to ask ourselves whether we are losing patience with democracy and turning to more authoritarian alternatives that may well yield superior short-term results but in the long term will end up destroying our country and all the achievements of the last 70 years,” he said while addressing students and faculty.

“Governance is complex. It is messy. It is slow. Its benefits are long term. It requires great patience. Above all, democracy is a system in which people without privilege have a decisive voice in governance. If this is lost, democracy becomes meaningless,” he added.

Regarding the present day scenario in the country, Manmohan Singh said: “A dangerous and false binary is now surfacing in Indian political discourse, which must be firmly rejected. It is that we have to choose between freedom and development. It is not a new binary.

“Dr. Ambedkar once worried that the day may come when people may prefer government for the people to government by and of the people. He saw that as a great danger.

“On this 70th anniversary, we must ensure that we do not fall into the trap of choosing government for the people over government by and of the people,” he said.

By Aroonim Bhuyan (11:36)

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes on a two-day visit to Sweden next week, cooperation in the area of innovation will form a key element of his agenda, Sweden’s ambassador to India Klas Molin has said.

Speaking to IANS here, Molin said that the summit between Modi and his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven on April 17 will see discussions on cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues.

“Of the global ones, of course, multilateral cooperation. You have environment and climate, trans-boundary issues of common concern where we have been gratified and heartened by India’s leadership in taking on important responsibility, assuming responsibility for some of these global issues in a very positive way,” he said.

“I think you will also hopefully see the leaders discussing and agreeing perhaps on continuing the work that was started two years ago in Mumbai where we had a joint statement outlining a plethora of issues and areas in which to cooperate.”

Lofven had visited Mumbai in 2016 to participate in the “Make in India Week”. Modi’s visit will be the first prime ministerial visit from India to Sweden in 30 years since that of Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.

Stating that innovation is a broad but specific area of cooperation between the two countries, Molin said that this was an important part of the India-Sweden joint statement that was released during Lofven’s visit.

“How do we cooperate further, how do we get our best and the brightest people together, how do we also perhaps think about funding certain areas, how do we go into areas where we can cooperate even more and develop new technologies, create employment and sustainable solutions on a number of issues,” he said.

During Modi’s visit, an India-Sweden Innovation Partnership is also expected to be launched.

“I think it is something we are discussing with the Indian side but exactly how this will look, of course, will have to be finalised,” the ambassador said.

“But I think it is a way of focusing our attention on both sides to create a platform that, in turn, can attract investments, that can attract companies to plug in.”

Stating that Sweden has signed such innovation partnerships with France and Germany, Molin said that “we will be certainly very happy to sign this with India”.

“It will be an umbrella under which there will be a number of areas of particular interest,” he said.

Molin also said that Lofven himself is “personally extremely engaged in innovation” and chairs the Swedish Innovation Council that was set up by the government.

On bilateral economic relations, the ambassador said that trade is growing on both sides “and quite impressively so”.

Though bilateral trade dipped to $1.9 billion in 2016-17 from $2.17 billion, both countries have set a lofty total trade target of $5 billion.

“I think it will be useful also to set targets that are very lofty goals,” Molin said. “Nothing wrong with that. They are not always met, but I think the ambition is most important.”

He was of the opinion that trade in services between the two countries is growing and this might even overtake trade in goods.

“But in trading goods, we have definitely seen impressive growth in the figures, I think for Swedish exports, more than 25 per cent; and India is also growing, not perhaps dramatically but growing significantly and consistently,” the ambassador said.

“If you include services, I think this is where, of course, one of India’s amazing advantages lie with the talent pool of people. There is IT services, you have back offices, you have all kinds of support services, you have software development.”

Stating that cooperation in academics and research and development is another important area of focus, Molin said that both the countries are looking to increase student exchanges between universities.

On April 17, India and Sweden will also co-host the first ever India-Nordic Summit, where, apart from Modi and Lofven, the Prime Ministers of the other four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway will also be present.

Molin said that Nordic countries are close as neighbours and cooperate very closely in a number of issues.

“But we are not a political entity in that way,” he said. “It’s not like the EU, it’s not a regional organisation in any way. It’s a convenient forum.”

According to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry, India’s trade with the Nordic countries totaled around $5.3 billion in 2016-17, with cumulative foreign direct investment in India at $2.5 billion.

“The Nordic countries have globally recognised strengths in clean technologies, environmental solutions, port modernisation, food processing, health, agriculture infrastructure, skill development and innovation which are also the focus areas of India’s development,” a ministry statement said. These complementarities and the unique strengths of India and the Nordic countries hold the potential to further boost trade and investment from both sides.

Apart from his meeting with Lofven, Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the other four Nordic countries on the sidelines of the summit.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Under fire for the worst privacy debacle in his company’s history, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away often-aggressive questioning from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the US election.

During some five hours of Senate questioning on April 10, Zuckerberg apologized several times for Facebook failures, disclosed that his company was “working with” special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users’ private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump’s campaign.

Seemingly unimpressed, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Zuckerberg’s company had a 14-year history of apologizing for “ill-advised decisions” related to user privacy. “How is today’s apology different?” Thune asked.

“We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company,” Zuckerberg conceded, and Facebook must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in “good and healthy” ways.

The controversy has brought a flood of bad publicity and sent the company’s stock value plunging, but Zuckerberg seemed to achieve a measure of success in countering that: Facebook shares surged 4.5 percent for the day, the biggest gain in two years.

In all, he skated largely unharmed through his first day of congressional testimony. He’ll face House questioners on April 11.

The 33-year-old founder of the world’s best-known social media giant appeared in a suit and tie, a departure from the T-shirt he’s famous for wearing in public as well as in private. Even so, his youth cast a sharp contrast with his often-elderly, grey-haired Senate inquisitors. And the enormous complexity of the social network he created at times defeated the attempts of legislators to hammer him on Facebook’s specific failures and how to fix them.

The stakes are high for both Zuckerberg and his company. Facebook has been reeling from its worst-ever privacy failure following revelations last month that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly scooped up data on some 87 million users. Zuckerberg has been on an apology tour for most of the past two weeks, culminating in his congressional appearance Tuesday.

Although shaky at times, Zuckerberg seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed. An iconic figure as a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the way people around the world relate to each other, he made a point of repeatedly referring back to the Harvard dorm room where he said Facebook was brought to life.

At times, he showed plenty of steel. After aggressive questioning about Facebook’s alleged political bias from Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, Zuckerberg was asked if he was ready to take a break. No need. “That was pretty good,” he said of the exchange with Cruz.

For the most part, his careful but generally straightforward answers, steeped in the sometimes arcane details of Facebook’s underlying functions, often deflected aggressive questioning. When the going got tough, Zuckerberg was able to fall back on: “Our team should follow up with you on that, Senator.”

As a result, he found it relatively easy to return to familiar talking points: Facebook made mistakes, he and his executives are very sorry, and they’re working very hard to correct the problems and safeguard the users’ data. As for the federal Russia probe that has occupied much of Washington’s attention for months, he said he had not been interviewed by special counsel Mueller’s team, but “I know we’re working with them.” He offered no details, citing a concern about confidentiality rules of the investigation.

Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using US aliases and politicking on US soil. A number of the Russian ads were on Facebook. Much of the effort was aimed at denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and thereby helping Republican Trump, or simply encouraging divisiveness and undercutting faith in the US system.

Zuckerberg said Facebook had been led to believe Cambridge Analytica had deleted the user data it had harvested and that had been “clearly a mistake.” He said Facebook had considered the data collection “a closed case” and had not alerted the Federal Trade Commission. He assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.

Separately, the company began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that “one of your friends” used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called “This Is Your Digital Life.” The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica.

In the hearings, Zuckerberg is trying to both restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated.

Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida said he believes Zuckerberg was taking the congressional hearings seriously “because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation.”

Republicans have yet to get behind any legislation, but that could change.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Zuckerberg if he would be willing to work with lawmakers to examine what “regulations you think are necessary for your industry.”

Absolutely, Zuckerberg responded, saying later in an exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that “I’m not the type of person who thinks that all regulation is bad.”

Ahead of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said, “This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action.”

At the hearing, Zuckerberg said: “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

He outlined steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders’ access to people’s personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 – actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.

Sources in the Congress say party president Rahul Gandhi has given a go-ahead to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s plan to contest from two seats in upcoming Assembly elections — Chamundeshwari and Badami. Siddaramaiah was thought to be keeping a safe seat in north Karnataka region as a back-up after being convinced by his well-wishers about the dangers of relying only on the Chamundeshwari seat in view of a “deal” between JD(S) and the BJP there. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Chief (KPCC) Dr G Parameshwara, who had lost the last time by over 30,000 votes, is also likely to contest from two seats — Koratagere in Tumkur district and Pulikeshinagara in Bengaluru. The ruling party, meanwhile, is battling yet another piece of fake news and has denied a candidates’ list doing the rounds.