Both British Parliament and the U.S. government are at the earliest stages of investigating Facebook after its data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica. In one of the most bizarre turns this scandal has taken, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix, was secretly videotaped admitting that he uses bribes and sex workers to blackmail politicians. He’s now been suspended, and the company is launching an investigation to discover if any crimes were committed.
While the investigation digs into whether Nix or anyone at Cambridge Analytica did the things mentioned in the video, the company’s board suspended Nix after he chose not to leave the company outright or accept a low-profile role within the organization with fewer responsibilities:
The company confirmed Mr. Nix’s suspension in a statement on Tuesday. A spokesman said the comments by Mr. Nix in the Channel 4 video “do not represent the values or operations of the firm, and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation.”
Alexander Tayler, the company’s chief data officer, will serve as acting CEO. Julian Malins, a London-based lawyer, will lead the investigation, the results of which the board will share publicly “in due course,” the company said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nix has ruffled feathers with others at the firm for his propensity to exaggerate what the company does and what it can do:
They said Mr. Nix has repeatedly mischaracterized the work the company did for the Trump campaign, including promoting the idea that Cambridge Analytica had provided psychographic analysis related to the personalities and values of voters to the campaign. The firm didn’t provide such analysis to the Republican president’s campaign, the people said.
Well, that claim is going to be a point of dispute in the future…
(Via Wall Street Journal)