Facebook in storm over Cambridge Analytica data scandal

[LovingA2andMI]

Source: Financial Times

Facebook is under increasing pressure to explain how data collected on 50m users were exploited for political gain, following claims that data firm Cambridge Analytica used the leaked information to help Donald Trump win the US presidency.

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are calling on the social network to reveal more information about how Cambridge Analytica, which has close ties to Steve Bannon, Mr. Trumps former chief strategist, harvested data of mostly US voters.

British MP Damian Collins has asked Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, to personally testify in an investigation into how the social network was also used in political campaigns including the Brexit referendum. Mr Collins said it was time for Mr Zuckerberg to stop hiding behind his Facebook page.

Mr. Collins on Sunday accused Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analyticas chief executive, of deliberately misleading a committee hearing last month when he told parliament that his firm did not use any Facebook data. Mr. Nix told the Financial Times at the weekend that he stood by his comments, despite a former employee turned whistleblower claiming he had evidence to the contrary.

Mr. Nix said: We deleted our Facebook data at the time we were alerted to a possible contravention of Facebook data policies.

When asked why he did not disclose this to parliament, he said: They didnt ask me that. They asked me if you used Facebook data in your model. The answer to that question is no.


Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/828e50ac-2ace-11e8-a34a-7e7563b0b0f4

---

This is serious folks. Wanna know what happened during Election 2016?

It all starts and ends with Facebook, The Mercer's Cambridge Analytica, Russia, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump (plus other players on the Trump Team). As the Whistleblower from Facebook (whose account on FB is now SUSPENDED on FB -- interesting timing don't ya think -) now says and read this one twice if needed:

"A self-described gay, Canadian vegan, Wylie eventually became as he told The Guardian the developer of Steve Bannon's psychological warfare mindfuck tool.

The goal, as The Guardian reported, was to combine social media reach with big data analytical tools to create psychographic profiles that could then be manipulated in what Bannon and Cambridge Analytica investor Robert Mercer allegedly referred to as a military-style psychological operations campaign targeting U.S. voters." - [link:https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/facebook-has-suspended-the-account-of-the-whistleblower-who-exposed-cambridge-analytica/Techcrunch]

[Pachamama]

1. I think we have finally started to identify by name some of the American Citizens who conspired to

....help the Russians deliver the election to Donald Trump....


“Military Style Psyops”

[LovingA2andMI]

2. Bingo!!

This is the story. Again -- This is the story folks need to strongly consider sharing like mad -- oh and this TechCrunch Article too...

"Tech hath no fury like a multi-billion dollar social media giant scorned.

In the latest turn of the developing scandal around how Facebook’s user data wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica — for use in the in development in psychographic profiles that may or may not have played a part in the election victory of Donald Trump — the company has taken the unusual step of suspending the account of the whistleblower who helped expose the issues.

Link to tweet

In a fantastic profile in The Guardian, Wylie revealed himself to be the architect of the technology that Cambridge Analytica used to develop targeted advertising strategies that arguably helped sway the U.S. presidential election.

A self-described gay, Canadian vegan, Wylie eventually became — as he told The Guardian — the developer of “Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare mindfuck tool.”

The goal, as The Guardian reported, was to combine social media’s reach with big data analytical tools to create psychographic profiles that could then be manipulated in what Bannon and Cambridge Analytica investor Robert Mercer allegedly referred to as a military-style psychological operations campaign — targeting U.S. voters."

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/facebook-has-suspended-the-account-of-the-whistleblower-who-exposed-cambridge-analytica/

[CelticWinter]

27. posted

this story on FB shortly before I deleted my account with them. I told all my friends and family to read this and delete their accounts, that FB was not to be trusted. This is sad because it was nice keeping in touch with the ppl in my life but not at the expense of assholes getting personal information, nothing is sacred anymore
Celtic

[LovingA2andMI]

28. Hopefully, Folks will get it...

Hopefully...

[dogknob]

55. Um. Cat sorta already out of bag re: personal info. Why not use your page to help others.

It became pretty obvious to me a few years ago when FB pages like Cop Block started spamming me. It was not that hard to figure out that Cop Block was Russian. Instead of deleting my account, I have used it to inform my friends; I even kept an obvious troll on the line for a while to show friends how to recognize their tactics.

Now that this stuff is on the Today show, I guess it's not a "conspiracy theory" anymore. So using your FB to educate your friends about this just got a lot less difficult.

So far FB has not suspended me for posting about CA... and my friends share with their friends... and so on.

[CelticWinter]

57. I use to post

stuff all the time about how corrupt this administration was and the bull crap that they were pulling. What has irritated me is that they are using information off my friends list and believe me my immediate family needs no encouragement from the right they are nutty enough about rTrumpf as it is, I'm the only dem in my family of evan-nuts and right wingers. I am lucky though that I have an aunt and cousins who are as same mind as myself. I will just fill their emails with my findings on their beloved nut in the oval office, I will get to them one way or another. Deleting my account is my way of protesting that they are not going to use my information for their evil plans, they can go to hell in a chicken wire canoe for all I care. There are other ways to get the word out that "trumpf and friends" are no good and deserve a room at Gitmo.
Celtic

[KY_EnviroGuy]

63. K&R, that's a good one - "go to hell in a chicken wire canoe".

You've giving me visions of tRump's whole gang in one of those on the Potomac, LOL.

Hang in there with your family and thanks for sharing.......

[CelticWinter]

64. i sure will thanks

[Dustlawyer]

31. We have got to get rid of campaign donations, Super PACs, dark money,...

to keep out this outsized influence! Billionaires should not be allowed to conduct psyops propaganda on American voters!

It has already killed Representative Democracy since the politicians represent big Donors and not us!

[Farmer-Rick]

37. The best way to do that is to Democratize the economy

Get rid of of billionaires who, like royalty, inherit their wealth by doing nothing then set about to destroy the country that allowed them such excessive resources.

Really, the super rich are a danger to a peaceful society just like the kings and queens of feudalism were what with their endless wars and palace squabbles that turned into nation wide massacres.

If we had an economy where not labor but wealth resources were taxed, then we would not be seeing everyone bowing down every time someone with excessive resources farts.

[c-rational]

39. Agreed, suggest you read "We the Corporation" by Adam Winkler on how businesses became

people. We must change it and rid ourselves of the the stupidity of Citizens United.

[lagomorph777]

34. Zuckerberg

[AwakeAtLast]

66. Needs to go to jail

There, I finished the sentence for you...

[lagomorph777]

68. Like we've been living together...

[AwakeAtLast]

69. .

[workinclasszero]

53. Fuckin A!

Damn traitors!!!

[democratisphere]

3. The Executive Management and majority shareholders of fakebook

are traitors to the America and the American people. Fakebook needs to become extinct.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. "Following..."

[LovingA2andMI]

5. Thank You...

As this story (and the others that link to this story) ties all the dots in a nice bow to what happened in Election 2016. We (The American and British Public) were Mindfucked (or Ratfucked) with, thanks to Facebook desire to get $$$ at all costs. Period.

[Pachamama]

6. +1000

Completely agree...

[Hortensis]

19. Absolutely following, thanks. I've been waiting for the

U.S. to launch formal investigations into this existential threat and am so glad UK is on it. No doubt Mueller's on it, but how far into this would his mandate go?

[erronis]

25. I'm sure dump's lapdog devin is all over this.... No need to involve a Special Counsel.

[Hortensis]

30. Lol. Won't Devin likely be going to prison as it is?

Fingers crossed, of course.

[lagomorph777]

40. Will Mueller indict Turd's lackeys first Dustbin Numbskull, Dana Russiabacker, Lyin' Ryan, McTurtle?

This could clear the path to solving the root problem.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Probably went like CA exposed FB data to Russian hacks who washed it & sold back to CA-Trump team

So-called "plausible deniability".

Plus the Russians were using a lot of data like that for the Web Brigades and Troll Army in St. Petersburg and elsewhere.

[LovingA2andMI]

11. Yep..

So to break this down, a U.S. Based 'Tech Company" FACEBOOK, sold on the Public Exchange WALL STREET, that has Billions of Dollars made off its stock MONEY, whose stock was not doing that well before ELECTION 2016, decide to increase its NET WORTH by selling your PERSONAL DATA to ROBERT MERCER's company Cambridge Analytica, who was working REAL CLOSE with STEVE BANNON, who was on the team of TRUMP 2016, with BANNON himself working THISCLOSE with the RUSSIANS on a Psychological Warfare Plan to MINDFUCK (Ratfuck) millions of U.S. and British voters to STEAL ELECTIONS in the U.S. and U.K.

That is the story. Plain and simple. This is what happened in Election 2016!

[erronis]

26. Nice diagram. Reminds me of the Paradise and Panama papers

Someone will take a fall for the rest. Wonder who it will be (not counting Chris Wylie who has already been blocked by fakefuck.)

[Justice]

35. Facebook went public 2012 - huge revenue by 2016

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/09/facebook-turns-a-profit-users-hits-300-million/26721/

"In May 2009, Facebook was valued at $6.5 billion when it received a $200 million investment from a Russian investment firm."

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/01/facebook-q3-2017-earnings/ - good data on revenues
"Still, CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw it fit to break from his traditional “Our business is doing well” script to add “But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don’t bring people closer together. We’re serious about preventing abuse on our platforms. We’re investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

[watoos]

8. I keep waiting

for another name to surface, Dr. Steve Pieznernik. He is skilled in psy-ops. He regularly appears on Infowars. He is the one behind the conspiracy theory about the Clintons using a coup to win the presidency so Donald Trump needed to perform a counter-coup.

Check out his web site if you have the courage. I may be wrong but this guy has to be involved in some way. I blog on a right wing site in Pa. and his talking points keep being posted there by the wing nuts.

[LovingA2andMI]

12. Umm...

Thanks for the info...

[Hortensis]

21. How about Peter Thiel? Big investor in Facebook,

like Mercer a hardcore libertarian, and the owner of Palantir, which handles "vast datasets on UK and US citizens for GCHQ and the NSA, as well as many other countries." The Trump campaign reportedly said Thiel helped them with data.

"To anyone concerned about surveillance, Palantir is practically now a trigger word. The data-mining firm has contracts with governments all over the world – including GCHQ and the NSA. It’s owned by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and major investor in Facebook, who became Silicon Valley’s first vocal supporter of Trump."

These quotes are from a The Guardian article headed with "This article is the subject of legal complaints on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and SCL Elections Limited."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

Thiel also has long-time connections to Trump, particularly through Jared Kushner. I believe some assistant of his whose name I can't remember went to work for the campaign, or other associated entity.

[erronis]

44. Thanks for mentioning another actor, Thiel. He has his fingers in lots of pies

And has some agendas that are contradictory to a real democracy, rules of the people.

[Hortensis]

46. He's way up on my list of personal enemies.

Those I have names for, of course.

[UCmeNdc]

9. FB destroyed Hillary Clinton's campaign

The money given to Cambridge Analytica and FB should be considered campaign finance contributions.

[LovingA2andMI]

13. Facebook...

Ratfucked the Hillary Clinton Campaign to increase its Stock Portfolio Net Worth on Wall Street. REMEMBER -- Facebook stock was not doing so well before the 2016 elections.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. No. Her campaign was just fine. FB & CA enabled the Russians to steal the Electoral College.

Basically it was emails and Benghazi and Kenya and child sex trafficking and 40 murders and a slew of nonsense that was pumped out to swamp the facts and the real issues.

[LovingA2andMI]

18. And to increase Facebook Stock Portfolio...

Which was not so good (or Rich) before Election 2016...

[dalton99a]

58. Very important point.

Zuckerberg doesn't give a damn. All he cares about is his wealth.

[c-rational]

41. Well said! NT

[UCmeNdc]

10. I Cancelled My Facebook Account!

[LovingA2andMI]

14. We're following you....

Facebook is evil to say the very least.

[Luciferous]

23. I did too! Granted they didn't have any of my actual information and I only used it to

play games, but still...

[Sam McGee]

16. I've never understood . . . .

. . . why anyone uses Facebook. Or Instagram. Or snapchat. Or any of that other "social media."

[LovingA2andMI]

17. Good Point....

Many don't do so and looks like they, were the smart ones...

[Boomer]

29. It's not that difficult to understand

Facebook makes it easy to keep with long-distance family and friends. I've found it invaluable in getting to know my cousins in Mexico, as adults, not just the children I met four decades ago. It's the trivia of our everyday lives that helps me learn the music they enjoy, their politics (left-leaning), our shared love of dogs and cats, our sense of humor in what makes us laugh.

Same for other friends who live too far away to visit. I keep up with what's happening in their lives, trade quips and anecdotes, get a real sense of their personalities.

Ideally, I'd live in the middle of family and friends and wouldn't need the internet to make those connections. But not all of us have that luxury. I'm fairly isolated geographically, very isolated socially, and FB has been invaluable in keeping social connections, actually made them stronger, that I would probably have lost if we had depended on letter writing.

For all its faults, I'd be sorry to see it go.

[LovingA2andMI]

49. Maybe It Needs To Go...

Facebook misused the trust of its 500 Billion Users and Especially Its UK and US users. Just because something is Free does NOT give Facebook The Right To Sell My Privacy Data To The Higher Bidder To Rig An Election. This is exactly what Facebook did.

Guess it is time to return to picking up the Phone to keep in contact with others (at least on this end. Everyone else will have to decide for themselves.)

[Hortensis]

33. DU is a social medium... :) Our children post events

and photos on FB for family and friends. Access to their private posts is the only thing we use FB for (and my husband can barely find those), but it's a big one.

I didn't know FB had "news" until this blew up.

[dogknob]

56. I re-post a lot of stuff I read on DU to Facebook

Social media is not inherently evil. Evil people use it for evil. It's not social media that needs to go. It's evil that needs to go. And that starts with repairing the winner/loser, "everyone's out to get me so I might as well get them first" culture we currently find ourselves mired in.

When someone is doing things that they know hurt others -- and doing those things with a clear conscience because they know they are "right" or "a good person" -- when their hurtful actions are completely justified to them -- that's my definition of evil.

[haele]

60. A lot of event or home based and "word of mouth" businesses use Facebook.

It's cheaper and easier for them to reach out to a specific customer base than just a web-site competing for other eyes on Google or Bing. Facebook is often used as a portal in the "Gig" economy.
For example, Kidlet used to sell Scentscy products out of her home (they're sort of like Tupperware; not quite an MLM as in she could make money without anyone downstream if she has a wide circle of friends and/or is innovative about events, but the business is similar in structure); the website that company gave her to sell from is exclusively Facebook based.
There are a number of other businesses - food trucks, photographers, farmer's market vendors, etsy-type craftspeople - who use Facebook almost exclusively because that's where their customers hang out.


Haele

[LovingA2andMI]

20. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower says company worked with Corey Lewandowski, Steve Bannon

The Video Link:

https://www.today.com/video/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-says-the-company-worked-with-trump-campaign-strategist-and-steve-bannon-1189326915651

[Scurrilous]

22. @#$% Facebook.

[LovingA2andMI]

24. EXACTLY THIS!!!

....

[spike91nz]

32. Nix is slippery

He did not use “Facebook data” he used data individuals who have Facebook accounts created in the course of their web activity. He makes a distinction that would make a lawyer proud but I think his clever avoidance of the facts will eventually be run to ground by a good prosecutor.

[FakeNoose]

36. They originally mined the data from Facebook

....but after they worked it over, it was no longer Facebook's data, it was theirs. They used it themselves and sold it to other like-minded groups. A clever distinction!

Thank God they don't have me in their data, I was never on Facebook. I keep getting spam from them though. They'd love to get more people in their web.

[neohippie]

38. i've been sounding the alarm about CA for more than a year

There's a lot of information about CA in this thread I posted in February 2017



https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028716802


And more from this threads from this past weekend


https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142016046

and of course these ties from Silicon Valley to Russian Mafia



There's a lot of interesting Russian ties to Silcon Valley, Facebook, Digital Skies, Zynga -facebook games, Air BNB, Spotify, Slack, and so much more

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/yuri-milner-facebook-twitter-russia.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=DA0D674CBF7C2F13611890CAB2434CCE&gwt=pay


https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/3286-facebook-are-you-interfacing-with-the-russian-mafia--kgb


Andrey Ternovskiy, one of Russia's wunderkind Internet entrepreneurs, is being courted by venture capitalists the world over. To get access to cash he needn't leave Moscow, but he doesn't want to do business with the billionaire oligarchs tied to the Russian Mafia and Putin's KGB-FSB machine in the Kremlin.

So, earlier this year the 18-year-old founder of Chatroullet, a webcam-based conversation website, came to the United States to meet with investors. Ternovskiy didn't tell anyone his itinerary. Nevertheless, when he arrived in New York, there was a chauffer-driven limo waiting for him, courtesy of Yuri Milner and Digital Sky Technologies (DST), Russia's hottest investment company.

Ternovskiy reportedly has rebuffed DST's efforts, describing them as "harassing and hounding."

Ryan Tate at gawker.com appropriately describes the DST limo episode as "creepy." However, the experience goes beyond "creepy," illustrating the nexus between Russia's "business" community and it's intelligence structures. How did DST know Ternovskiy's flight schedule? There are a number of ways that DST could have gotten that information, nearly all of which would be illegal in any country where the "rule of law" is more than merely an empty slogan. But considering DST's high-level ties to Vladimir Putin's KGB-FSB police-state apparatus, obtaining Ternovskiy's airline itinerary must have been child's play.

The Russian teenager is demonstrating better business sense and greater ethical judgment than American corporations, such as social network behemoth Facebook and Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs. Over the past year, DST has made several large investments in Facebook, and now holds a ten percent share in the company, which boasts more than 500 million users worldwide — and continues to grow at a phenomenal rate.

DST, which has also invested heavily in Zynga, the online social network game developer (FarmVille, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars [above], etc.), and Groupon, a deal-of-the-day website, has a billion dollars to invest in Internet companies and, reportedly, is also looking at buying into Twitter.


https://www.wired.com/2011/10/mf_milner/


Ties to Kushner


https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/russia-funded-facebook-twitter-investments-kushner-investor





he investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.

The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year’s presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner.


Alexander Vershbow, who was a US ambassador to Russia under George W Bush and to Nato under Bill Clinton, said the Russian state institutions were frequently used as “tools for Putin’s pet political projects”.

Vershbow said the findings were concerning in light of efforts by Moscow to disrupt US democracy and public debate. “There clearly was a wider plan, despite Putin’s protestations to the contrary,” he said.


The investments are detailed in the Paradise Papers, a trove of millions of leaked documents reviewed by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other partners, along with other previously unreported filings.

Facebook and Twitter were not made aware that funding for the investments came from the state-controlled VTB Bank and a financial arm of the state oil and gas firm Gazprom, according to Milner.

The files show that in 2011, VTB funded a $191m investment in Twitter. About the same time, Gazprom Investholding financed an opaque offshore company, which in turn funded a vehicle that held $1bn-worth of Facebook shares.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Milner



https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-poligarchs-oligarchs-and-stooges-of-the-paradise-papers


T
he Paradise Papers have uncovered some of the stooges and their connections to oligarchs. One example is Yuri Milner, a Wharton-educated Russian businessman who once worked for the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oligarch who rejected the mafia-state bargain and lost his fortune, spent ten years in prison, and now lives in exile. Milner started making money through Russian tech investments in the aughts, and by 2009 he was investing in American high-tech companies. He has since become a Silicon Valley fixture and a bit of a science-and-technology celebrity (he founded the Breakthrough Prizes, which offer the biggest cash payout of any science prize in the world). The Paradise Papers expose Milner as a stooge of Alisher Usmanov, an oligarch who has enjoyed most-favored status under Putin. Some of the money for Milner’s investments in Facebook came from Gazprom Investholding, which is the finance arm of the Russian state gas monopoly, Gazprom; at the time, Usmanov ran Gazprom Investholding.

[LovingA2andMI]

48. Thank You...

For doing so.

[dalton99a]

59. +1

[Nitram]

42. This is actually very, very serious.

This will be a major wake-up call for Facebook.

[Calista241]

43. The EU is going to bend Facebook over.

GDPR and E-Privacy law requirements on EU citizen’s personal data was certainly violated.

And Facebook processed data they possessed for purposes other than the original consent received from the data subject.

[BigmanPigman]

45. My family never joined it, Twitter or Linked in.

We have a healthy dose of skepticism and do not trust them. We even cover the cameras on our phones and computers with tape. Fuckerberg himself does that. Facebook includes Jared, Erik Prince, The Mercers, Bannon, Lewindowski, Giuliani, Assange, etc. That tells me it is not safe and not to be trusted.

[Calista241]

50. At this point, its awkward if you dont have a social media presence.

For instance, if you’re submitting to a background check for a new job, etc.

Being a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram user and having a profile adds value, even if you don’t post much or keep it up to date.

[LovingA2andMI]

51. A Resume and Background Check (Which Any Employer Worth Their Salt, Will Do)...

Can do the same. Never have (and never will) link a Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Instagram or any other Social Media Profile to any employment application. It's none of their business.

[neohippie]

47. Looks like NCGOP has CA ties too

just saw this tweet about NC GOP and CA

Link to tweet

[BadGimp]

52. FOLLOW THE DATA

As usual, the media is chasing the wrong story. Going after Facebook is easy and overlooks the more important aspect of the story.

Follow The Data. Cambridge Analytica only mined and massaged the data. Someone else used the data to do ad and message targeting. WHO WAS THAT. Then the much bigger question is DID THE RUSSIANS GET THEIR HANDS ON THE DATA? And if they did, WHO GAVE IT TO THEM.?

I have been saying to anyone who would listen: The Russians did not have the data needed to launch and manage their disinformation efforts. Someone gave them the data they needed. WHO GAVE THE RUSSIANS THE DATA?

[LovingA2andMI]

54. Of Course That Is The Story..

But EQUALLY The Story is to Focus on American Based Social Media Companies That Are Traded on Wall Street For The Highest Dollar Who Sells Its Data To Companies Like Cambridge Analytica and others. Our Federal Government Must Be MADE to MAKE these Companies Account To These Charges -- and If Facebook Does Not Cease This Practice (along with any other "Social Media Network&quot It Must Be SHUTDOWN!

[BuddhaGirl]

62. +1

Yes yes yes!!

[scipan]

61. The Guardian is doing a series on this

Lots of good info.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files

[rockfordfile]

65. Facebook is a un-American company. You are going to get all kinds of apologists.

If you remember there were Cambridge Analytica apologists on DU.

[LovingA2andMI]

67. Good Point....

Thanks for making it.