Whistleblower gives masterclass in how to manipulate opinion
Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower behind the Facebook data-harvesting scandal, on Tuesday spoke about his role in an exposé that knocked US$60 million (Dh220.3m) off Facebook’s value this week.
The scandal has also led to the suspension of Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix.
Speaking in London, Mr Wylie, 28, gave an insider’s view of the tools used by political strategists to manipulate opinion in society.
He worked on political campaigns since the age of 18, and was with the Liberal Democrats in 2013 when a political connection introduced him to a company called SCL Group, the subsidiary of which, SCL Elections, later created Cambridge Analytica. He said Mr Nix, then chief executive of SCL Elections, made him a job offer after the company’s research director was found dead in a hotel room in Kenya.
At that stage, 80 per cent of Mr Nix’s clients were military-related bodies or political campaigns in developing countries.
With an explosion of data on mobile internet platforms, Mr Nix wanted Mr Wylie to develop ideas on swaying voters using data from social media profiles.
Mr Nix introduced him to Steve Bannon, later to become Donald Trump’s campaign manager, as the company sought investment from Robert Mercer, a backer of Brietbart News.
The company was so keen to impress Mr Bannon that it opened a fake office near the University of Cambridge after Mr Bannon expressed an interest in visiting the city.
“We brought a bunch of people to set up this office beside the university to make it look like ‘This is our Cambridge site – our Potemkin Cambridge office’,” Mr Wylie said.
“Later, when the Mercers bought in and appointed Steve to set up the company, he decided he should call it Cambridge Analytica as a tip of the hat to our deep links to the University of Cambridge.”
Companies House records show that SCL USA was registered in 2015 and the name was changed to Cambridge Analytica (UK) in April 2016.
Mr Mercer was the polar opposite of Mr Bannon – quiet, clever and with a PhD in computer science.
Mr Mercer invested $10m to relaunch Mr Nix’s operations at Cambridge Analytica. When it detached from its military-focused parent, Mr Wylie said Cambridge Analytica was“a concept” vehicle.
Mr Wylie soon tired of his new clients and quit in 2014.
Facebook has demanded the right to conduct a forensic audit on the computer systems of Mr Wylie, Cambridge Analytica and Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge psychologist who harvested the data of up to 50 million people through a quiz app.