Author: OpIndia Staff
Publication: Opindia.com
Date: March 22, 2018
URL:      http://www.opindia.com/2018/03/usual-suspects-float-conspiracy-theories-as-congress-tries-to-distance-itself-from-cambridge-analytica/amp/

Even as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg vowed to ‘step up’ to fix the data privacy issues faced by the social networking giant following the revelation that British data consulting firm Cambridge Analytics created psychological profiles, which may have been used to influence electoral politics, conspiracy theories have started floating around, the best of which is that the entire Cambridge Analytica data breach allegations are created to ‘divert attention’.

Abusive troll masquerading as journalist Swati Chaturvedi, who is known for spreading lies and bigotry, was quick to blame a headline that pointing out the fact that Congress at one point reportedly hired Cambridge Analytics is a tactic to divert topic by the BJP.
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Swati Chaturvedi @bainjal
Unbelievable diversion. What is the Modi govt trying to hide now via headline management? https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/976721152243654656 …        12:59 PM - Mar 22, 2018
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She is an old hand at floating conspiracy theories that certain things are done by Modi only to divert the topic on hand. She even blamed ED raids on former union minister P. Chidambaram in a corruption case as ‘diversion tactic’ by the BJP.
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Swati Chaturvedi @bainjal
Yawn more headline management from Modi govt! Just to divert from "democracy in danger" #SupremeMutiny https://twitter.com/jgopikrishnan70/status/952028774555566081 …           11:01 AM - Jan 13, 2018
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She’s not the only one who thinks so. Congress President Rahul Gandhi, too, thinks the news is a ‘diversion’. Except, in his case, he thinks the news is a diversion tactic from the 39 Indians killed in Mosul by ISIS.
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Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi
Problem: 39 Indians dead; Govt on the mat, caught lying.
Solution: Invent story on Congress & Data Theft.
Result: Media networks bite bait; 39 Indians vanish from radar.
Problem solved.            10:14 AM - Mar 22, 2018
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Congress’ official Twitter handle, too, put up a poll which even goes a step further by giving 4 options to choose from.

This is not the first time the Congress has floated theories about topic diversion.

Interestingly, Congress is not the only party to blame ‘topic diversion’ when they find themselves in a soup.

Way back in 2012, the foresighted leader Arvind Kejriwal had raised such doubts.
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Arvind Kejriwal @ArvindKejriwal
If Digvijay can't convince his party bosses or the PM, then people wud think he is doing all this for cheap publicity and to divert attn
7:36 AM - Oct 21, 2012
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Kejriwal also tried to blame his inefficiency to on ‘evil forces’.
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Arvind Kejriwal @ArvindKejriwal
To all AAP volunteers n supporters. Evil forces will try to divert ur attention. But pl stay focussed on positive agenda for Delhi(1/2)
10:50 AM - Jan 30, 2015
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Many others have also followed suit.

Like how JNU protestor Shehla Rashid, who’d rather let an injured child bleed than clear up the traffic jam created by protestors, also thought bullet train was brought in to divert topic from journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder.
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Shehla Rashid @Shehla_Rashid
Bullet train! To divert attention from the bullets they pumped into Gauri's heart.
12:09 AM - Sep 15, 2017
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She also thought Modi government brought in demonetisation to divert attention from a missing student from JNU.