In what could be labelled as a controversial move post the Cambridge Analytica fiasco worldwide, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has in a 66-page tender invited proposals from private players to build and operate a 24×7 “social media communication hub.” It will be manned by operators (including 20 for a core team in Delhi and one for each of India’s 716 districts) that is able to watch over and intervene on social media and email.
Named the Central Monitoring System (CMS), according to reports, it will be able to trail all Facebook, Twitter and email users across India. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has invited bids for a tool that will track tweets, posts and content shared from any part of the country. The tool could possibly be one the world’s largest social media monitoring system.
Once live, the system could rival the capabilities of surveillance programs like China’s censorship platform or the American National Security Agency’s infamous snooping tool, PRISM.
According to reports, the agency informed that, “A technology platform is needed to collect digital media chatter from all core social media platforms as well as digital platforms like news, blogs and forums along with a proprietary mobile insights platform in a single system providing real time insights, metrics and other valuable data. The platform will be deployed in the private data center and will need to integrate with the mobile platform database for a seamless view across all data platforms.”
The tool will have the capability to crawl the worldwide web and social media to monitor and analyse trends. The tool will also be able to categorize positive, negative and neutral social media conversations.”
The move comes in the middle of a fierce global debate about data privacy sparked by the Cambridge Analytica scandal that rocked Facebook this year, revealing how personal information was used to influence political campaigns without the consent of users.
The government’s proposal also includes a segment for the media. It wants the tool to identify stories that the government deems as “fake news”, predict “headlines and breaking news of various channels and newspapers across the globe” and gauge “what would be the global public perception due to such headlines and breaking news”.
The tool is aimed at setting up of an early warning system for possible flashpoints that the government may be unprepared for.
The social media analytics wing of the ministry currently scrutinizes posts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook and generates reports for the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Advisor’s Office and various intelligence bureaus, aside from ministries including, Home Affairs, External Affairs and Defence.
So, starting this month, all telecommunications and Internet communications in India will be analysed by the government and its agencies. It loosely means that everything said or texted over the phone, written, posted or browsed over the Internet will be centrally monitored by government authorities.
The estimated set up cost of the Central Monitoring System (CMS) is Rs 4 billion and it will be connected with Telephone Call Interception System (TCIS) which will help monitor voice calls, SMS and MMS, fax communications on landlines, CDMA, video calls, GSM and 3G networks. Agencies which will have access to the CMS include the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the Narcotics Control Bureau, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The department has sought the funds and manpower for collating the critical information to monitor any sudden violent uprising. However, it vehemently denies monitoring individual accounts; the mandate, it says, is to determine perceptions on various issues, including policy.
Social media reactions are categorized under positive, negative and neutral. They are indicative of the sentiment of the masses, which officials said helps in decision making. Ministries can also commission special reports and analyses of big ticket events like the Prime Minister’s foreign visits, actions against terror attacks or response to policy which can impact internal security and external relations.
Amidst controversies that are bound to hound such surveillance program that gives the government total control over individuals’ data, leaders of the Opposition called it a violation of consent and said data could be misused for electoral purposes. “The BJP government’s addiction to snooping is reaching dangerous levels. They will misuse this tool to shape the narrative, influence the voters, to adopt unethical and unfair means to grab democracy rather than earn the trust. This government can’t be trusted with such a lethal weapon,” Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said.
The I&B Ministry or any government official is yet to make a statement on this though the system is said to become functional starting end of this month.