- The Washington Times - Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Cambridge Analytica, the British “data-mining” firm at the center of Facebook’s user privacy scandal, is shutting down as clients flee and contracts collapse, the company announced Wednesday.

In March, a former employee revealed that the London-based outfit, which did work for Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and proponents of the 2016 Brexit vote, had illegally gathered data from as many as 87 million Facebook users to influence elections.

The firm then unraveled amid an ensuing scandal and heated investigations by both the British Parliament and U.S. Congress. The publicity-shy Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to testify before American lawmakers on a range of issues, including why the social media giant’s privacy standards had been breached by Cambridge Analytica.

The company in its statement Wednesday said it had been unfairly smeared.

“Over the past several months,” the firm’s London-based owner SCL Group said in a statement Wednesday, “Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the company’s efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.”

Executives added that damaging media coverage had “driven away virtually all of the company’s customers and suppliers.” The company’s Washington office was also shuttered and employees told to go home after a Wednesday morning conference call.

The scandal exploded when former staffer Christopher Wylie told reporters that the company — which at one point had former Trump White House senior adviser Steve Bannon as vice president — used information gleaned from Facebook to build psychological profiles on a large portion of the American electorate.

Mr. Wylie also expressed fears that the data may have been turned over to Russians who aimed to interfere in the 2016 election.

Shortly thereafter, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix was suspended after being secretly filmed by British TV suggesting the firm had helped run Mr. Trump’s digital election campaign. He also discussed the possible use of unorthodox methods to discredit politicians, including “sending girls around” to another candidate’s house.

The firm hired a third-party investigator, Julian Malins, and on Wednesday announced he had concluded allegations against the company were not “borne out by the facts.” That was not enough, however, to keep the company viable.

“Despite Cambridge Analytica’s unwavering confidence that its employees have acted ethically and lawfully, which view is now fully supported by Mr. Malins’ report, … it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business,” the company said.

The elections division of Cambridge’s British affiliate, SCL Group, will also shut down, the company said.

• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.

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