Russia will vote in Indian election, says Thomas Friedman

MUMBAI: Pulitzer Prize winner and author Thomas Friedman said Indian regulators need to draft a policy that will consider millions of rural people who might not understand the debate around social media privacy concerns.
Friedman on Thursday also warned Indians about the involvement of Russia in the upcoming elections through unregulated mediums like Facebook, the way it did to the detriment of US in 2016.
President Vladimir Putin will be “voting” in the election, the author of the book “The world is flat” said.
“If you (Indians) think they (Russians) will not be playing in your election, you are not paying attention. Believe me, Putin will be voting in your election,” Friedman said, speaking at the Nasscom summit here.
He accused Facebook of “fundamentally violating the trust” that got the US a president like Donald Trump. Friedman said there is a strong need for technologists to understand the US constitution. He launched a scathing attack on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and said he should take up a course on the US Constitution, instead of learning how to code.
When a country like the US, a champion of liberal thought, talks about building walls and chooses to “go into the dark”, it impacts the whole world, he said.
President Trump’s imprint through his policy moves is spreading “venom and poison” across the world, he said.
Friedman said a newspaper like The New York Times for which he writes is made of dead wood, but strictly regulated, unlike a Facebook which revels at zero oversight.
Facebook, however, wants a newspaper’s advertisers and readers, without the regulation over things like fake news, he said, calling it as a fundamental violation of trust.