Are you misusing Facebook, Twitter for manipulating stocks? Beware, SEBI is watching

SEBI is in the process to acquire the capability to analyse social media posts to keep a check on possible manipulators in the securities market, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi said on Thursday. The capital markets regulator is aiming to augment its analytical capability and surveillance amid increasing use of social media platforms by manipulators for market manipulation, Ajay Tyagi also said at an event. “Regulators worldwide are increasingly acknowledging that there is much more surveillance input that can be gained from such social media platforms than that can be gained from analysis of structured data,” he added.

The regulator plans to use artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, natural language processing among others that enable collection, filtering and analysis of such unstructured data will greatly augment the surveillance capabilities, Ajay Tyagi said. A tender has also been floated for acquiring the technology. Even in the absence of such a focused tool, Tyagi said Sebi already has capabilities, wherein it screens social media posts after corporate announcements and the changes in price and volumes of a scrip. “Surveillance of capital markets is another field where I believe a lot of improvement and efficiency can be brought through the use of advanced technology and data analytics,” he said. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been reported to be used by securities market manipulators.

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“Sebi has already planned a data lake project to augment analytical capability with advances tools such as pattern recognition, processing of structured and unstructured data,” said Ajay Tyagi. Meanwhile, last year, Sebi sent show-cause notices to ten entities. The notices were allegedly issued leaking important financial information of listed companies on Whatsapp groups a day or two ahead of the information being made public.

Source: Financial Express