Chris
Wylie
said the
firm,
Cambridge
Analytica,
secured
personal
data in
order to
learn
about
individuals
and then
used it
to
create
an
information
cocoon
to
change
their
perceptions.
Facebook
data
whistleblower:
‘fake
news to
the next
level’ NEW
YORK - A
Trump-affiliated
firm
under
scrutiny
for
inappropriately
obtaining
data on
tens of
millions
of
Facebook
users
created
profiling
algorithms
that
“took
fake
news to
the next
level,”
a former
employee
said.
Chris
Wylie
said the
firm,
Cambridge
Analytica,
secured
personal
data in
order to
learn
about
individuals
and then
used it
to
create
an
information
cocoon
to
change
their
perceptions.
“This is
based on
an idea
called
‘informational
dominance,’
which is
the idea
that if
you can
capture
every
channel
of
information
around a
person
and then
inject
content
around
them,
you can
change
their
perception
of
what’s
actually
happening,”
Wylie
said.
In
an
interview
Monday
on NBC’s
“Today,”
Wylie
said
Cambridge
Analytica
aimed to
“explore
mental
vulnerabilities
of
people.”
He said
the firm
“works
on
creating
a web of
disinformation
online
so
people
start
going
down the
rabbit
hole of
clicking
on
blogs,
websites
etc.
that
make
them
think
things
are
happening
that may
not be.”
This
idea of
“information
dominance,”
of
propaganda,
Wylie
told The
Guardian
newspaper
earlier,
is the
notion
that if
you can
control
all of
the
streams
of
information
to your
opponents,
“you can
influence
how they
perceive
that
battle
space
and you
can then
influence
how
they’re
going to
behave
and
react.”
Late
Friday,
Facebook
said it
would
ban
Cambridge
Analytica,
saying
the
company
improperly
obtained
information
from
270,000
people
who
downloaded
a
purported
research
app
described
as a
personality
test.
Facebook
first
learned
of the
breach
more
than two
years
ago, but
hasn’t
disclosed
it until
now.
The
developments
are the
latest
to show
how
people
try to
exploit
Facebook
in ways
that
could
sway
elections,
and in
the
worst
cases
even
undermine
democracy.
Before
the
Cambridge
imbroglio,
there
were
Russian
agents
running
election-related
propaganda
campaigns
through
targeted
ads and
fake
political
events.
Wylie
claimed
Cambridge
Analytica
used the
data it
had
while
speaking
with
Russian
businesses.
He also
said
that
while
political
ads are
also
targeted
at
specific
voters,
what’s
different
here is
that
people
wouldn’t
know
they
were
getting
messages
aimed at
influencing
their
views.
Cambridge
Analytica
has
denied
wrongdoing
and said
it
deleted
all data
it
received
from a
contractor
after
learning
the data
had been
obtained
in
violation
of
Facebook
policies.
The firm
said
none of
that
data was
used in
its 2016
election
work for
the
“avoidance
of
doubt.”
President
Donald
Trump’s
campaign
Saturday
denied
using
the
firm’s
data,
saying
it
relied
on the
Republican
National
Committee
for its
data.
Wylie
left
Cambridge
Analytica
in 2014,
and it’s
not
clear
how the
firm
targeted
people
with
misinformation
during
the 2016
presidential
campaign.
What is
clear is
that
two-thirds
of
Americans
get at
least
some of
their
news on
social
media,
according
on Pew
Research
Center,
and
about 20
percent
do so
“often.”
While
people
don’t
exist in
a
Facebook-only
vacuum,
it is
possible
that
bogus
information
users
saw on
the site
could
later be
reinforced
by the
“rabbit
hole” of
clicks
and
conspiracy
sites on
the
broader
internet,
as Wylie
described.
While
Wylie
said he
doesn’t
know
whether
Trump’s
campaign
used the
techniques,
he said
Trump’s
former
campaign
manager
Corey
Lewandowski
was
meeting
with
Cambridge
Analytica
in 2015,
before
Trump
even
announced
his run
for
office.