Academic says suspended Cambridge Analytica CEO lied

LONDON — A Cambridge University academic says the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica, the election consultancy at the heart of the Facebook privacy scandal, lied to British lawmakers investigating fake news. Academic Aleksandr Kogan’s company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, even if those friends hadn’t agreed to share their data. Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to profile U.S. voters and target them with ads during the 2016 election to help elect Donald Trump. It denies the charge.

Kogan appeared before the House of Commons’ media committee on Tuesday and was asked whether former Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix told the truth when he testified that none of the company’s data came from Global Science Research. “That’s a fabrication,” Kogan told committee Chairman Damian Collins.

Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, has alleged that the data from millions of Facebook accounts was used to help Trump’s election campaign. Cambridge Analytica says none of the Facebook data was used in the work it did for Trump. Kogan also cast doubt on many of Wylie’s allegations, which have triggered a global debate about internet privacy protections. Wylie repeated his claims in a series of media interviews as well as an appearance before the committee. Wylie worked for SCL Group Ltd., Cambridge Analytica’s Londonbased parent company, in 2013 and 2014.

“Mr. Wylie has invented many things,” Kogan said, calling him “duplicitous.”