Mark Zuckerberg’s massive apology tour continues after a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower revealed how the right-wing data operation attempted to sway the election in favor of Trump by harvesting data from 50 million users. Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica’s U.K. offices have been raided by investigators, and the trouble isn’t even close to completion.
As the Washington Post reveals, the company deployed “dozens of non-U.S. citizens” to assist Republican candidates on campaign strategy. This happened, apparently, even though attorneys warned Cambridge Analytica that this level of foreign involvement violates U.S. election laws, and the Facebook-banned whistleblower himself, Christopher Wylie, revealed all to the Post:
“[Cambridge Analytica’s] dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election.”
These workers, which were categorized as both employees and contractors, were involved in molding the messaging format of political platforms, including speech and talking-point preparation, along with “managing media relations” and fundraising, efforts that began after the 2014 U.S. midterms, when the GOP looked toward capturing the presidency in 2016.
Wylie’s words were backed up by two other former Cambridge Analytica employees, who wished to stay anonymous because they genuinely feared prosecution for what they saw go down during the course of their campaign work. These employees said that their fellow workers were also nervous about breaking U.S. campaign laws, and they added that Cambridge Analytica was providing “potentially inaccurate immigration documents” to their foreign employees who advised Republican campaigns. Oh boy.
(Via Washington Post)