Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower says it worked extensively in India, names Congress

Christopher Wylie, a former employee with Cambridge Analytica (CA), on Tuesday said that CA worked “extensively” in India and has an office here. While deposing in front of UK lawmakers, Wylie said that CA equated to a group of modern colonisers that don’t care what is legal or what is not unless it gets the job done.

Update: Around an hour after his initial statement, Wylie has offered more details, including naming Congress as one of the parties that possibly worked with CA. “I believe their client was Congress but I know that they have done all kinds of project. I don’t remember a national project but I know regionally. India’s so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff,” he reportedly said. He added that he might have documentary proof of CA’s activities in India.

Wylie made the confirmation before the digital, culture, media and sport committee in the House of Commons while testifying against Cambridge Analytica and its alleged role in propagating a culture of fake news and disinformation. Cambridge Analytica is accused of harvesting more than 50 million user profiles on Facebook with the help of academic researcher Aleksandr Kogan, without any consent from users, allegedly playing a role in the 2016 US presidential election, seeing Donald Trump through victory.

When a lawmaker brought up India, which according to the lawmaker, is Facebook’s biggest market, Wylie nodded and said that CA worked in India. “India is Facebook’s biggest market, it is a country that is rife with political discord and opportunities to destabilise,” said the UK lawmaker, prompting a reply from Wylie.

“They (CA) worked extensively in India, they have an office (there),” said Wylie. The deposition is still going on and more details related to the alleged CA operations in India may come up.

Although so far no concrete evidence has come up that CA, a firm that allegedly influenced and “hacked” elections across the world, worked in India, both Congress and BJP have levied allegations against each other. Both have claimed that the other party worked with CA, or with of its partner companies in India.

In his deposition, Wylie liked CA to a coloniser. “They are examples of what the modern day colonialism looks like, you have a wealthy company from developed nation going into an economy or democracy that is struggling and takes advantage of that and profits from that,” he said. “They don’t care whether what they do is legal or not as long as they get the job done…This (CA) is a company that goes around the world undermining the institutions in countries that are struggling to develop those institutions.

As an upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica apparently specialises in psychographic profile building techniques that can apparently identify the personalities of voters, the information that can then be used for micro-targeting of voters to influence their behaviour. The upstart allegedly had a role to play in the 2016 US presidential election, seeing Donald Trump through victory. The upstart allegedly also had a role to play in Brexit or Britain’s infamous Exit from the European Union. Wylie’s confirmation suggests the company may have had a role to play influencing the electoral process in other parts of the world as well, including in India.

Cambridge Analytica served as Donald Trump’s data operations team during the 2016 election. The upstart has been accused of harvesting more than 50 million user profiles on Facebook with the help of academic researcher Aleksandr Kogan. Without any consent from users. It was a data breach like no other.

Facebook feels differently though. “The claim that this is a data breach is completely false. Aleksandr Kogan requested and gained access to information from users who chose to sign up to his app, and everyone involved gave their consent. People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked,” Paul Grewal, VP & deputy general counsel at Facebook recently said in a blog post. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called it a breach of trust.

The House of Commons has even urged Zuckerberg to testify and Facebook is expected to send Chris Cox, who is its chief product officer, to London in the first week aftre the Easter recess, for the same.

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