Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warns FB of 'strict action'

"Any covert or overt attempt to misuse Social Media including Facebook to influence India's electoral process through undesirable means will neither be tolerated, nor be permitted. Let Facebook note it very clearly," he said warning the social media platform.

Prasad's comment came in the middle of the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica, where the BJP alleged that there was a link between the Congress party and Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica is a UK-based  data analytics firm that has been accused of  wrongly accessing Facebook user data for US President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

"Will the Congress Party now depend upon data manipulation and data theft to win elections?." Prasad said attacking the Congress party.

"What link does Cambridge Analytica have with social media management of Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party?," he said.

"How much data of Indians have the Congress Party shared with foreign firms like Cambridge Analytica?," he said.

He said abuse of social media will not be accepted.

"We uphold the use of social media and it has empowered every citizen who can ask us questions directly now. But abuse of social media that too by using foreign firms will not be acceptable," he said.

The Congress, however, denied the allegations.

"News about Congress engaged/engaging with Cambridge Analytica is absolutely false," tweeted Divya Spandana, the Congress’ social media cell in-charge.

Stories about US President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign doesn't seem to die down. The latest to have emerged from that controversial election is the role of Trump campaign’s data consultant, Cambridge Analytica, accused of using Facebook data wrongfully to influence the polls, even as the company Tuesday suspended its CEO Alexander Nix after a sting operation caught him discussing potential bribery and entrapment.

According to reports, the UK-based firm used data of millions of Facebook users without their consent to influence the 2016 US elections.

The Board of Cambridge Analytica Tuesday announced that it has suspended CEO Alexander Nix with immediate effect, pending a full, independent investigation.

"In the view of the Board, Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation.

"We have asked Dr. Alexander Tayler to serve as acting CEO while an independent investigation is launched to review those comments and allegations," the company said in a release.

"We have asked Julian Malins QC to lead this investigation, the findings of which the Board will share publicly in due course," it said.

"The Board will be monitoring the situation closely, working closely with Dr. Tayler, to ensure that Cambridge Analytica, in all of its operations, represents the firm’s values and delivers the highest-quality service to its clients."

The statement was released ahead of airing of the expose by Channel 4 News in the UK.

Even though several other apps on Facebook uses user data, Cambridge Analytica has been accused of breaking the rules as it obtained the said data under a veiled motive, telling users that it was for academic use.