Channel 4 ’s multi - part investigation into Cambridge Analytica concluded on Tuesday with another video of the house ’s CEO , Alexander Nix , meeting with an undercover reporter who was impersonating a fixer for a wealthy client seeking help in sway Sri Lankan elections . Mark Turnbull , Cambridge Analytica ’s managing director of political global , and Dr. Alex Tayler , the society ’s principal data scientist , are also identified as attendant at the encounter .
In Tuesday ’s video , executives claim that they could “ send some girls around ” to opposition campaigner so as to make negative material against them . They also floated the option of set up meetings with antagonist in which they ’re surreptitiously offered a bribe and caught on picture . It ’s unclear how much of that talk is puffery , but it was certainly enough to prompt the UK ’s data watchdog toseek a warrantto foray the fellowship ’s headquarters and get Nixsuspended .
The latest video highlights these buffoon ’ high-flown signified of ego - importance or their grifting tactic with potential client — whichever it is , it ’s promiscuous to see why they were the perfect firm for the Trump crusade . They insist that their cutting - edge approaching to data kick in Trump the reward he ask to squeak out the 40,000 vote redundant votes in key United States Department of State that nabbed him the Electoral College while he lagged behind by 3 million votes nationally . Nix boasted that they were the propaganda arm for Trump , allege , “ We did all the research , all the data , all the analytics , all the targeting , we ran all the digital campaign , the television campaign , and our datum inform all the scheme . ”
Nix also expire into more point about his house ’s use of proxy organizations for spreading minus attack against Trump ’s opponent , while keeping Trump ’s more irrefutable subject matter relegated to his channel . “ We just put selective information into the blood stream to the internet and then view it turn , give it a little pushing every now and again over metre to watch it take shape , ” he say . “ And so this poppycock infiltrate the online biotic community and expands but with no branding — so it ’s unascribable , untrackable . ”
None of what these hombre go on about is especially revelatory , but the discourse about using Super PACs to fund negative advertizement and drive pecuniary resource for mobilization is a courteous reminder that any coordination between those two entities would be illegal . Cambridge Analyticahas deniedany wrongdoing . In a assertion to Channel 4 , the firm tell , “ We have strict firewall practices to ensure no coordination between regulated mathematical group , including the teams working on non - coordinated campaigns being physically separated , using unlike servers and being banned from communicating with each other . ”
If you ’re starting to think these guys are full of shit about their cloak and sticker expertise , take care no further than the section where they brag about their secret self - destructing email system . Nix arrogate in the video :
No - one know we have it , and secondly we set our … emails with a self - destruct timekeeper . … So you mail them and after they ’ve been read , two hours later , they disappear . There ’s no grounds , there ’s no paper trail , there ’s nothing .
Channel 4 identified the electronic mail organisation asProtonMail , a service that anyone can get right now .
Nix also mocks the House Intelligence Committee ’s Russia probe , to which he gave grounds in 2017 . He say that the Republican members only ask him three doubt and the interview was over in five min . “ They ’re politician , they ’re not expert , ” he said . “ They do n’t understand how it function . ” In a command netmail to Gizmodo , Rep. Adam Schiff , the citizens committee ’s top Democrat , call for Nix to be compelled to add up before the committee to do some new questions . Schiff wrote , in part :
We have serious questions about the truthfulness of Mr. Nix ’s testimony . …
We have receive the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower , Christopher Wylie , to bear witness and he has take over our invitation . We will be inviting Dr. Alexandr Kogan to take the stand as well . It will also be necessary for the fellowship to inform us whether the document they wrick over to the Committee symbolise Cambridge Analytica ’s complete records and datum , and whether any responsive material was destroyed or made unaccessible due to the company ’s use of ProtonMail accounts .
On Monday , the New York Times ’ Kenneth Vogeltweeted , “ big secret about Cambridge Analytica : It was ( & is ) an overpriced service of process that delivered little value to the Trump run , & the other campaigns & PACs that retained it — most of which charter the firm because it was seen as a prerequisite for have $ $ $ from the Mercers . ” That seems pretty credible when you catch these guys in action mechanism .
But even if the Cambridge White House are mountebank , that does n’t resolve questions about the company’spossible sharingof information with state - connected Russian involvement . And above all , this all establish Facebook look pretty uncollectible . The societal electronic connection allegedly knew these toughie were involve with the misappropriation of 50 million of its users ’ personal data , yet it did effectively nothing about it .
Gizmodo reach out to Facebook on Monday to ask when we can expect its chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg to address the controversy . On Tuesday good afternoon , we received the following answer :
Mark , Sheryl and their teams are bring around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate natural process moving forward , because they understand the seriousness of this military issue . The full caller is outraged we were deceive . We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people ’s information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens .
Facebook also had an all - script meeting to address employee ’ concerns on Tuesday , according to theDaily Beast , neither Zuckerberg nor COO Sheryl Sandberg point up .
Where ’s Mark ?
[ Channel 4 ]
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