Elections in the Time of Data
VIEW EVENT DETAILSTuesday, 5th March 2019, 6:30 PM
Musician and entrepreneur, will.i.am recently said that personal data should be regarded as a human right. The infamous Cambridge Analytica case, where over 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested in a major data breach in 2016 before the US Presidential elections would make a strong argument for why the security of data is paramount. Inauthentic data or ‘fake news’ is increasingly being disseminated via groups on social media and targeted advertising all over the world, and in most cases receiving undue importance. On the other hand, there are organizations like Wikileaks, who as The New York Times describes is a "complicated source" rather than a journalistic partner. In the wake of the revelations by Cambridge Analytica, web giants Google, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, and even Microsoft have had to bring in significant revisions and safeguards in their policy.
In India, with 1.14 billion mobile phone connections, about 250 million WhatsApp accounts and close to 300 million Facebook users, the impact of “digital” election campaigns cannot be understated. Political parties have data analytics departments and “cell-phone pramukhs” who are conducting “WhatsApp micro-campaigns” to broaden their reach in the grassroots. As a result, NCRB is slated to declare data on new categories ahead of the elections like crimes against journalists, incidents of mob lynching, and fake news for the first time in its Crimes in India Report 2017. Facebook, on the other hand, also plans to remain highly involved in the election integrity efforts by appointing key personnel in the country.
What roles do social media and content-driven websites play in safeguarding data? How can the misuse of personal information be contained in a demographically varied country like India? How can data be monitored without violating freedom of speech?
Join us for a discussion with Govind Ethiraj, Founder, Indiaspend.com and Jeanette Rodrigues, Editor, Bloomberg on the use of big data in election campaigning, the stake of internet giants, and the choices for users.
This programme is the third in India Elections Series, wherein we are discussing the themes of governance, leadership, and institutions in the run-up to the General Elections.
Govindraj Ethiraj is a television and print journalist and the founder of BOOM (www.boomlive.in), a fact-checking and fake news busting initiative. He also founded factchecker.in and indiaspend.com, two public interest journalism initiatives which use data to write and syndicate stories in areas like health, education, and environment. Previously, he was Founder-Editor in Chief of Bloomberg TV India, as also CNBC-TV18. He is a career business journalist for over 25 years and has worked for Business Standard as Editor, Economic Times, Business World, and Business India magazines.
Jeanette Rodrigues is a journalist who has covered India for more than a decade, writing about the nation's financial markets, economy, banks, and government. Her current focus on the operations of Chinese banks also gives her insight into Chinese media and censorship, helping drawing parallels with India's fake news problem. After graduating in Mass Media from Mumbai's St. Xavier's College, Jeanette earned her Master's degree in Political Economy from the London School of Economics. She is currently an editor at Bloomberg News and was part of a team that won the 2017 Society of Publishers in Asia award for its coverage of India's demonetization.
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