Cambridge Analytica, the firm involved in a row over its use of Facebook data and for its work on President Donald Trump’s campaign has suspended its boss Alexander Nix.
Nix’s suspension is immediate, “pending a full, independent investigation,” the firm said in a statement. Sources suggest this has come about because of the pressure put on by Facebook.
The London-based firm, along with the social network, is under scrutiny following claims that large amounts of data amassed through a personality quiz on Facebook called This is Your Digital Life, were illegally used.
270,000 people took the quiz, and as participants completed the quiz, additional information was harvested of Facebook friends of the participants. In total some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks.
The chief data officer for Cambridge Analytica, Alex Taylor is recorded separately as saying the firm’s analysis was responsible for Trump’s Electoral College performance.
Channel 4 News aired another report in a series of exposes about the work of the company.
The report on Tuesday featured undercover footage of Nix claiming he met Trump “many times” and that the company was responsible for a comprehensive US Election marketing campaign management based on the data harvested through Facebook.
Alex Taylor went on to boast “When you think about the fact that Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, but won the Electoral College, that’s down to the data and the research…. that’s how he won the election.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has yet to break his silence and comment on the issue. In the meantime Facebook is taking losses on the stock market as share prices keep on falling.
Additionally, market traders are concerned the impact this loss will have on other smaller firms, who will also suffer huge losses on the stock market and revenue as a direct consequence of Facebook’s. data breach.
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