Involvement in India will be investigated: Cambridge Analytica
Cambridge Analytica (CA), the data consultancy firm at the heart of a fake news investigation in the UK, today said that all its activities around the world, including in India, will be investigated and reported on.
A spokesperson for the company said that while CA was focussed purely on the US market, its global arm SCL Elections handled other regions.
"All the national issues and national associations are part and parcel of the independent investigation. Rest assured, India, Kenya, Nigeria, all the other countries that SCL has been working in historically, will be investigated and reported on as part of the independent investigation," he told reporters during a press conference here today.
The press conference came soon after an academic associated with the company, Aleksandr Kogan, gave his evidence to the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ( DCMS) Committee on its ongoing investigation into fake news.
Kogan's company, Global Science Research (GSR), developed a Facebook app that reportedly collected data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends, without the explicit approval of all involved.
He accused CA's now-suspended CEO Alexander Nix of "total fabrication" when it came to denying the links between Cambridge Analytica and GSR's data.
DCMS Committee chair Damian Collins said that Nix had told the committee in February that CA never received data from Kogan's company GSR, which did not have "much credibility any more" given his own testimony today.
Last month, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of CA turned whistleblower, had told MPs during his evidence before the committee that the company had worked "extensively" in India and named the Congress as one of its clients.
In a post on Twitter later, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal (United) as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and revealed some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India - the parent company of CA.
"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," Wylie had tweeted.
His
message
included
documents
which
indicate
that
SCL
India
boasted
a
database
of
"over
600
districts
and
7
lakh
villages,
which
is
constantly
being
updated".
Its
reach
in
India
is
said
to
include
a
head
office
in
Ghaziabad,
with
nine
regional
offices
in
Ahmedabad,
Bangalore,
Cuttack,
Guwahati,
Hyderabad,
Indore,
Kolkata,
Patna
and
Pune.
"I
don't
remember
a
national
project
but
I
know
regionally.
India's
so
big
that
one
state
can
be
as
big
as
Britain.
But
they
do
have
offices
there,
they
do
have
staff
there,"
he
had
said,
offering
to
provide
more
"documentation"
to
the
committee
on
CA's
India
links.
PTI