Wednesday 11 April 2018

Christopher Wylie: Why I broke the Facebook data story – and what should happen now

9 What is AIQ’s role in this? Was British Facebook data, harvested using Cambridge Analytica’s apps, employed? Was data shared between Vote Leave, BeLeave, Veterans for Britain and the DUP?

We don’t know. Neither AIQ nor any of the campaign parties involved have answered these questions.

If this happened in Kenya or Nigeria, a new vote would be demanded by international observers. If this happened in a local constituency, a by-election would be called. Surely British democracy is mature enough to respond when something looks like it may have gone wrong, especially when the stakes are so high. The referendum was won by less than 2% of the vote. Could this have made the difference? Vote Leave’s chief strategist said it did: on a quote – now deleted – for AIQ’s website.

I am a progressive Eurosceptic. I supported Leave. This is not about “remoaning”. It’s about upholding the rule of law. The UK is about to embark on the most profound change to its constitutional settlement in a generation. We must be absolutely certain that this is being done on a proper legal basis. These are uncomfortable facts and hard questions. But Britain mustn’t “pull a Facebook”. Denial doesn’t work.

See Wylie set out the issues – and the evidence – as simply as possible.

8 comments:

  1. They cheated, they outsmarted us. Do over, man!

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    1. I think a 'do over' would lead to a civil war on the streets, so it won't be allowed to happen, no matter what. So, just possibly, a questionable outcome may have been bought by some Big Data merchants.

      Just what we needed! :-(

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  2. This kind of story can ONLY lead to more attempts at big data manipulations, especially if they think that such actions are effective.

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  3. One 'BeLeave' campaign (Facebook ads) cost £625.000: no one shells out that kind of dosh w/o knowing for sure that it works.

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    1. The Stay folks didn't advertise? Shame on them.

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    2. Of course the Remainers advertised. But Leave did it more and possibly circumvented the spending limits, very near the end of their campaign. Given how narrow the margin was, that may have tipped the balance. That's what Wylie (a Leaver) is highlighting.

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