home

Cambridge Analytica Fires CEO after Secret Video Appears

A video has been revealed of Cambridge Analyitca officials. You can watch it here. In it they talk to an undercover reporter "how Cambridge Analytica secretly campaigns in elections across the world. Bosses were filmed talking about using bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers."

Channel 4 news also recorded CA CEO Alexander Nix saying CA ran the Trump digital campaign , ran the TV campaign, that he personally met Donald Trump many times. Nix says on the tape CA did all the research, got all the data, did all the analytics, all the targeting. He says their data informed all of Trump's strategy.

Here's a video presentation by Nix in his Online Marketing Rockstars Keynote in Germany on the work CA did for Trump's Campaign and the strategies the company used.[More...]

Interestingly, he said that after the Billy Bush tape was exposed (which Nix calls "a hot mike situation" with "locker room banter", the data showed that his numbers went up in some places, allowing Trump to target those areas.

They obtained 950,000 email addresses. Raised $26.5 million. Drove 35,000 app installations. Promoted more than 100 events. Did 4,000 ad campaigns gaining 1.4 billion views in just four months, resulting in an average increase in favorability of 3%. With respect to absentee voters, he says there were 79.7 million impressions resulting in a 2% increase of absentee ballot submissions.

They identified Wisconsin as a state with large pockets of persuadable voters. He says Hillary never went there during the campaign. Trump then held five rallies there, giving him contact with 60 to 70,000 voters. Trump won the state by 50,000 voters.

At 25 minutes in, he admits getting the psychological profiles ("ocean profiles") through Facebook and says people volunteered the information.

From the audience: "Are you happy that you put a misogynous buffoon in the most powerful job in the world who is now f*cking up our world? Are you happy?"

Response: It's not for people in other other countries to cast their opinions on the self-determination in the U.S. Trump won fair and square. It was the will of the people and no one in other countries should criticize it. Asked again, but are you happy, he says he's happy with the job that they did.

In the Channel 4 video, it says a complaint has been filed that Cambridge Analytica acted as a conduit for sharing information between the superpac (allegedly funded by the Mercers) that made the Trump attack video ads (Make America No. 1 Again) with the Trump Campaign and that's illegal. They show an interview they did with Hillary on this before the CA/FB revelations and she says the real question is how the Russians know how to target their messages so precisely to undecided voters in Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania. If they got advice from companies like CA, telling them these are the FB pages you need to be on, that would be very disturbing.

Channel 4 says Mueller has asked CA to turn over all the staff emails from the Trump campaign. Nix said he appeared before a congressional committee and Republicans had 3 questions. Democrats went on for 2 hours but they don't understand what they are investigating. He says the candidate is never aware, he's a puppet of his campaign team. He says its just sour grapes. Nix tells Channel Four that CA uses a Proton secure encrypted email account that destroys emails 2 hours after they are sent or read.

CA official Mark Turnbull (Managing director of CA Political Global) in the video talked about CA feeding negative information to proxy groups, such as charities and activist groups, and they do the work. "We just put information into the bloodstream of the Internet" and watch it grow-- give it a little push now and then. Over time, we watch it take shape. And so this stuff infiltrates the online community and expands, but with no branding, so it's unattributable, untrackable."

Shorter version of all this: How Trump used companies that poison the bloodstream of the internet to win the election.

< Tuesday Open Thread | NY Judge Rules Trump Can be Deposed by Victims >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    I don't know what's scarier... (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by kdog on Tue Mar 20, 2018 at 07:31:35 PM EST
    nefarious characters dropping social media manipulation science, or that people are so easily manipulated. My pops always said the tv would turn your head to mush, the tv got nothing on the internet.

    You still can't con a con (none / 0) (#2)
    by jondee on Tue Mar 20, 2018 at 09:55:49 PM EST
    which is the only thing some of us have going for us.

    Parent
    The Mercers have simply (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Mar 21, 2018 at 01:25:27 PM EST
    Created a new company, Emerdata. And Alexander Nix is the director of Emerdata.

    Well, (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Mar 21, 2018 at 04:51:42 PM EST
    it is going to be up to us to find out who is using them.

    Parent
    In an interview Zuckerberg (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 09:01:21 AM EST
    Was asked if he would testify before congress.

    He said, "the short answer is, if it's the right thing to do".

    No Zuck.  The short answer is YES.

    as "education Secretary" Betsy Devo learned yesterday

    Seriously watch that clip.  It will make your day.

    As for Zuck, subpoena the SOB.

    MOZILLA dumps FACEBOOK (5.00 / 2) (#10)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 09:14:42 AM EST
    Yes, this was (5.00 / 2) (#11)
    by KeysDan on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 09:49:25 AM EST
    mystifying.  Just subpoena him...this is a matter of national security.

    Parent
    He's also not even said he's sorry, and (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Anne on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 01:31:31 PM EST
    has framed it in the passive voice - you know, framing it as "things happened" as opposed to "we did this," and taking ownership of his/the company's actions.

    Parent
    Geez (none / 0) (#12)
    by Zorba on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 01:27:08 PM EST
    Zuckerberg is such an arrogant jerk.
    I hope they do subpoena his @ss.

    Parent
    Bolton and Cambridge Analytica (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 05:51:03 PM EST
    Erik Prince is also shown to be (none / 0) (#15)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Mar 23, 2018 at 05:19:49 AM EST
    Connected to Cambridge Analytica. He also appears to be connected to the Mercers new data company Emerdata.

    Parent
    The (none / 0) (#16)
    by FlJoe on Fri Mar 23, 2018 at 05:48:16 AM EST
    Mercers finally a replacement for Bannon, now they  resume the takeover of this country.

    Parent
    Forgot (none / 0) (#4)
    by FlJoe on Wed Mar 21, 2018 at 07:45:34 AM EST
    link

    Also he will testify before the House Intel Committee soon in the not quite dead Russia investigation

    Though firm in their insistence that the Russia probe has officially ended, Republicans indicated that they would hear Wylie - and, potentially, other witnesses who come forward - out.

    "Sure, let's see what they have," said Rep. Peter King, R-New York. "We've said if something new comes up we'd look at it."

    "Nothing's ever over," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina. "At a certain point you say, 'We have no more witnesses to call.' But if a witness comes forward with information, you're not gonna say, 'Well, we've closed, we're not going to hear from you.'"

    Stay tuned.

    had to delete (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jeralyn on Wed Mar 21, 2018 at 05:44:00 PM EST
    your first comment because it used the F word without an asterisk, sorry!

    Parent
    oops (none / 0) (#8)
    by FlJoe on Thu Mar 22, 2018 at 07:36:09 AM EST
    here's the edited quote:
    as Wylie describes it, he was the gay Canadian vegan who somehow ended up creating "Steve Bannon's psychological warfare mindf**k tool".

    Straight out of a William Gibson novel if you ask me. Cyberpunk cowboys and fascist wannabes indeed.

    Parent