How Facebook was weaponised

2013, Cambridge University: Psychology reseachers publish study of more than 58,000 volunteer U.S. adults, in which online survey app reveals personality traits based on Facebook “likes”

Volunteers
Friends

App collects data on Facebook users’ friends – average of 340 friends/user
Study can identify Democrat and Republican voters in 85% of cases

Strategic Communication Laboratories
Dec 2013: SCL launches
Cambridge Analytica (CA), backed by $10 million from Republican donor Robert Mercer (left).
2014-16: Donald Trump’s strategist, Steve Bannon (right) is CA’s vice president

Global Science Research
May 2014: Cambridge psychologist
Aleksandr Kogan (right) founds Global Science Research, which works with SCL and CA. GSR harvests so-called psychometric profiles of 50 million U.S. Facebook accounts

Cambridge Analytica
Feb 2016: CA chief executive Alexander Nix (above) works with Ted Cruz’s campaign in Republican Party presidential primaries.
Kogan’s psychometric profiles are used to create highly-personalised Facebook ads.
Cruz wins Iowa caucuses
  
Trump campaign        
Jun-Nov 2016: Trump campaign hires CA.
Team uses dark posts – ads which target undecided Democrats’ Facebook accounts to suppress their votes. For example, ads aimed at African-Americans misquote Hillary Clinton referring to black men as predators


Sources: Motherboard, PNAS, Reuters Pictures: Associated Press, Getty Images
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