WHISTLEBLOWER: CONGRESS WAS DATA FIRM CLIENT
London, March 27: A former employee of Cambridge Analytica turned whistleblower said on Tuesday that the company had worked extensively in India and believed it was employed by the Congress during his evidence before a UK parliamentary committee investigating the issue of fake news.
Christopher Wylie deposed before the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) here amid an escalating row around alleged Facebook data breaches linked with the UK-based company, which has also been linked with alleged attempts to influence elections in India.
“When you look at Facebook’s biggest market, India is the top in terms of numbers of users. Obviously, that’s a country which is rife with political discord and opportunities for destabilisation,” said Labour MP Paul Farrelly, member of the parliamentary committee, during his questioning.
“They (Cambridge Analytica) worked extensively in India. They have an office in India,” Wylie responded.
“I believe their client was Congress, but I know that they have done all kinds of projects. I don’t remember a national project but I know regionally,” he added, on being probed further.
The whisteblower said he didn’t remember a national project by Cambridge Analytica, but there were regional projects.
He said during his deposition that India’s so big that one state can be as big as Britain.
He offered to provide the UK committee "documentation" on India.
Wylie revealed his predecessor, Dan Muresan, Head of Elections at SCL Group, was working in India before he died in Kenya mysteriously.
Paul-Olivier Dehaye, co-founder of PersonalData.IO, said he had heard reports that Muresan was being paid by an Indian billionaire who wanted the Congress to lose polls. HOW FACEBOOK SIPHONED OFF PHONE CALL AND TEXT LOGS Facebook’s Android app was collecting call and text histories. Google let FB siphon off records of who its users were contacting and when.