India warns Facebook

New Delhi, Mar 21: India on Wednesday warned Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg against "any data theft" and said that India will not stop short of taking stringent actions, even if it "includes summoning you".

"As Law Minister of India let me make it very, very clear. We fully support freedom of press, freedom of speech and expression and free exchange of ideas on social media".

"But any attempt to covert or overt by the social media including Facebook of trying to influence India's electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor tolerated," Union Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media.

Stating that 20 crore Indians were using Facebook, making it the company's largest market outside of the US, Prasad cautioned the social media giant and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of repercussions under IT Act in case of any data breach came to light.