Facebook enhancing security features to ensure integrity of upcoming elections in India: Zuckerberg

With the social media giant facing increasing criticism over its alleged links with Cambridge Analytica which reportedly manipulated Facebook data during the US presidential elections, Zuckerberg saidFacebook is enhancing its security features and is working towards making the social media platform a "secure place"to ensureintegrity of the upcoming general elections in India due to be held in 2019.

During aninterviewto a US daily, Zuckerberg said that the massive focus for Facebook right now is to "not only focus on 2018 mid-term elections of US but the Indian elections and other major upcoming elections around the world."

"We have a responsibility to do this not only for the 2018 midterms in the US, which are going to be a huge deal this year, and that's just a huge focus of us. But there's a big election in India this year," the Facebook founder said.

Zuckerberg also mentioned about artificial intelligence(AI) tools that Facebook is going to use to prevent fake news and information manipulation during elections.

According to reports, such tools were used for the first time during the 2017 French elections.

Amid the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook data breach row, Indian IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had warned Facebook on Wednesday to take "stringent"action against any attempt to influence polls through data theft.

Ravi Shankar Prasad went a step forward and threatened Zuckerberg that he could be summoned to India if needed.

Uk based data analysis company, Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting private information from more than 50 million Facebook users in developing techniques to support President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, the New York Times and London's Observer reported on Saturday (March 18).

The reports have mentioned that the firm has worked for some Indian clients as well.