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Cambridge Analytica

(295 Posts)
OldMeg Wed 21-Mar-18 07:12:06

This is certainly an eye opener.

Has anyone been following the story? Channel 4 News did an excellent exposé.

Primrose65 Thu 29-Mar-18 15:53:18

I think both sides have already been investigated by the electoral commission for that though. Is there new evidence?

The thread is about CA, so it's a fair assumption that a comment about electoral fraud would be in relation to that.

Both sides funded payments to AIQ through other campaigns. I can understand saying both sides cheated, but that was not the allegation in Jura's post.

whitewave Thu 29-Mar-18 16:35:40

The Intellectual Property licence has been put out for scrutiny, which links CA and AIQ- hence LeaveEU to vote leave.

The CA and Facebook contract is also for scrutiny published by Damien Collins as part of the Fake news enquiry.

MaizieD Thu 29-Mar-18 16:49:35

Both sides funded payments to AIQ through other campaigns.

Do you have evidence for that statement Primrose?

Because I haven't seen any accusations of Remainer groups covertly overspending. but that might just be because they haven't entered my bubble.

I have seen Leaver 'complaints' of all the Remain groups spending more in total than did the all Leave groups, but I don't think there was a cap on over all total spending so that is irrelevant. The spending cap was on individual groups and it is this which is the focus of the current row.

MaizieD Thu 29-Mar-18 17:05:09

Both sides funded payments to AIQ through other campaigns.

Sorry, having re read your post I can't see that you're actually alleging that Remain groups covertly overspent. so what are you tring to say with this statement?

The significance of AIQ is that it is linked to CA and the strange coincidence that the student leader of a very insignificant campaign suddenly a) discovered AIQ, despite the fact that it had no internet presence, b) suddenly had £600,000 odd to spend with them and c) that the money never entered their account; the bill was paid by Vote Leave.

If there is similar evidence of 'cheating' on the Remain side it only reinforces the view that the referendum campaigns were fuelled by cheating and that either the result should be declared void or there should be a rerun. A decision so major and so absolutely crucial to the future of the UK should not be made on the basis of a flawed election. The very fact that it's being implemented at all without fair consideration of the closeness of the vote is bad enough, but to continue on the basis that 'both sides cheated so that's OK then' is utterly appalling.

It certainly doesn't accord at all well with our cherished British value of Fair Play...

MaizieD Thu 29-Mar-18 17:06:25

Not a 'flawed election' (doh...) a 'flawed referendum'

whitewave Thu 29-Mar-18 17:16:57

I agree that there is as yet no evidence that Remain broke the spending rules to the level that leave appear to have done. However this doesn’t negate the fact that the referendum is under question with regard to its legitimacy. Indeed if the remain side are proved to be guilty of the same crime, them the referendum must surely be ruled null and void?

durhamjen Thu 29-Mar-18 17:35:41

newsthump.com/2018/03/29/illegal-brexit-adverts-didnt-affect-me-insists-brexiter-with-house-is-full-of-things-he-saw-advert-for/

whitewave Thu 29-Mar-18 18:11:59

Evidence of Goves involvement in Leave EUs campaign. He seems to have forgotten his involvement

pbs.twimg.com/media/DZY2DbrWAAAIKJ4?format=jpg

Primrose65 Thu 29-Mar-18 19:10:12

Both sides funded payments to AIQ through other campaigns.

Do you have evidence for that statement Primrose?

Maizie I believe there's going to be a report about this in the Observer this weekend, as I posted previously.

durhamjen Thu 29-Mar-18 20:15:13

How do you know that, primrose?

whitewave Thu 29-Mar-18 21:45:00

I’m not really sure that it is relavent in any case. The question is the legitimacy of the way the referendum was run. If remain are also found to be culpable then it surely simply reinforces the illegitimate argument.

durhamjen Fri 30-Mar-18 15:37:19

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/29/cambridge-analytica-predecessor-had-access-to-secret-mod-information

durhamjen Sat 31-Mar-18 10:18:45

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/03/31/the-whole-purpose-of-advertising-is-to-spread-dissatisfaction/

Gone a bit quiet about Cambridge Analytica lately.

durhamjen Sat 31-Mar-18 10:19:43

By the way, primrose, how do you know what is going to be in the Observer tomorrow?

varian Sat 31-Mar-18 14:18:12

"Around the world, democracy is being hijacked. And unless the western democracies start to care, election quality will continue to decline. This threatens to undermine the very idea of democracy, turning these elections into an empty ritual that the government always wins. The Cambridge Analytica revelations are the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t about one company or a handful of elections, it is about a concerted attack on democracy by a powerful alliance of authoritarian leaders and multinational companies. It has gone unnoticed and unanswered for too long. A parliamentary inquiry into what such companies are doing around the world would reveal, fairly quickly, how much has gone wrong. And why, for those who care about democracy, it is time to fight back."

www.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/how-to-rig-an-election/

durhamjen Sat 31-Mar-18 15:27:08

Good article, varian. This paragraph is important, too.

"The greatest challenge to 21st–century democracy is that uninformed voters are being replaced by misinformed ones. Alexander Nix put it well, during that Channel 4 sting operation, when he said of propaganda that: ‘Things don’t necessarily need to be true, as long as they’re believed.’ Uninformed voters often stay home. Misinformed voters turn out — and they often want to blow up the system or see a political rival permanently excluded from power. This can lead to anti-establishment politics, as in the UK and US; and in less politically stable parts of the world, to political violence and the discrediting of democracy itself."

durhamjen Sat 31-Mar-18 15:59:24

Another Spectator story. This one doesn't think Cambridge Analytica being involved in the US and UK elections is all that important.

www.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/revealed-cambridge-analytica-and-the-passport-king/

If the UK decides that all the Russians they have sold passports to for millions are persona non grata, will they need to give the money back?
Passport selling sounds very much like the Cambridge Analytica scam.

durhamjen Sat 31-Mar-18 23:36:30

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/31/aggregateiq-canadian-tech-brexit-data-riddle-cambridge-analytica

This will be in tomorrow's Observer, and I can see no mention of Remain in it.

Where is that story, primrose?

MaizieD Sat 31-Mar-18 23:46:31

Where is that story, primrose?

I must say that I've been keeping an eye on twitter all evening as any revelations of Remain cheating would have been all over even my echo chamber of a timeline... but nothing as yet...

durhamjen Sun 01-Apr-18 11:18:30

Must be a non-story - someone playing an April fool's joke on primrose.

whitewave Sun 01-Apr-18 13:25:59

SomRemain have not yet been found to have cheating whereas Leave.......well!!

Carol Callwaldre tweeted

“How did vote leave, believe, the DUP, veterans for Britain, Gove and Stuart all find the same data firm? It is 5000 miles away. It didn’t come up on a single google search at the time.
But it is outside British jurisdiction!!,”

More damning evidence of the cheating Leave group.

whitewave Sun 01-Apr-18 13:29:21

pbs.twimg.com/media/DZsCPAzW4AYfljf?format=jpg

whitewave Sun 01-Apr-18 13:35:03

More thoughts

pbs.twimg.com/media/DZsO424XcAE7o0w?format=jpg

whitewave Sun 01-Apr-18 13:35:34

Thoughts by Churchill on aMPs duty

pbs.twimg.com/media/DZsepxgW0AAK68M?format=jpg

whitewave Sun 01-Apr-18 14:39:11

One other mystery not yet solved is the question as to where the £435000 the DUP had to fight the referendum, come from?

Someone must know. But we do know that very little of it was spent in NI.