On March 17, 2018, New York Times posted “How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions.”
Here is the background as covered by Washington Post.
Here is an in-depth undercover investigation by Channel 4 News that reveals how Cambridge Analytica secretly campaigns in elections across the world.
Bosses are filmed talking about using bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers.
Jan Oberg comments
We’ve heard a lot about Russian meddling in the US Presidential election process. We hear daily media stories of just how brilliant Russia’s performance is in the ongoing media/propaganda war.
This documentary is deeply disturbing because it reveals the utter decay in business and political ethics that now influence elections processes in what was supposed to be democracies. It seems plausible to me that the pointing of fingers at Russia – which of course also use media manipulations – is a kind of psycho-political projection of the darkest sides of the West itself upon “the other.” What you see in this documentary ought to be impossible in a modern, decent and lawful society – either by professional standards or by legislation. It obviously isn’t. And, additionally, Facebook will be in huge troubles with these revelations.
Image above by Oberg PhotoGraphics
Recommended sources
Washington Post
Personal data of most of Facebook’s 2 billion users has been collected and shared by outside actors