Displaying items by tag: Cambridge Analytica

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has agreed to face a grilling from European Union lawmakers over how the data of as many as 2.7 million Europeans could have ended up in the hands of consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. On 16 May, European parliament president Antonio Tajani said that Zuckerberg had accepted the EU institution’s invitation to cross the Atlantic and face lawmakers in person as soon as next week. The meeting will take place in private on 22 May, the assembly’s press service said. Facebook, in an statement, said it accepted the ‘proposal to meet with leaders of the European Parliament and appreciate the opportunity for dialogue, listen to their views, and show the steps we are taking to improve protection of people’s privacy’.

Claims from a Cambridge Analytica (CA) whistle-blower that the Leave campaign won by ‘cheating’ has some people calling for a second vote and others hoping the result can be overturned by Parliament. Our electoral system is under scrutiny, as new evidence shows that both remainers and leavers appear to have done what they could financially to maximise their vote. Researchers now believe it is probable that both sides were up to similar tricks. The controversy over the Brexit vote has drawn British involvement with CA to the attention of Transparency International. If Brexit campaigns end up on the wrong side of the law, pray that they will face the subsequent consequences. But, however we reached Brexit, the referendum result has three likely guarantors: the Conservative backbench, the Labour frontbench, and public opinion. See also article 4 in the World section, about CA.

Recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica (CA) tactics to influence elections using data from Facebook accounts and its role in UK and US election votes are the tip of an iceberg. CA has been linked to elections in Czech Republic, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Ukraine. This is a truly worldwide phenomenon. New technologies can be a double-edged sword. Social media has transformed how the public call out the corrupt and demand change. But what happens when the data these tools generate about their users is used as part of a murky process to influence elections? Is this corruption? The now-suspended CEO of CA has said that some emails between the company and its clients automatically self-destruct, leaving no electronic paper trail for investigators looking for election fraud allegations. Also identities of companies working on elections were hidden, presumably through shell companies. ‘No one even knew they were there,’ said another CA executive of an operation in Eastern Europe. See also