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Cambridge Analytica Parent Company Banned By Facebook Has Contract With State Department
Cambridge Analytica Parent Company Banned By Facebook Has Contract With State Department
SCL Group has been contracted by the State Department's Global Engagement Center to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization.
By Bethania Palma
20 March 2018
Gil C / Shutterstock.com
A psychometrics company that has been banned by Facebook for improperly acquiring and deploying user information in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election has a half-million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of State to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization, according to State Department officials.
According to a State Department spokesperson, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) contracted with the Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) Group, the London-based parent company of Cambridge Analytica, to “conduct audience analysis and research to better understand ISIS recruitment and radicalization to violence.” As of 20 March 2018, the yearlong contract is winding down, even as Cambridge Analytica comes under scrutiny for tactics used to help secure a long-shot electoral victory for United States President Donald Trump.
According to public information and the spokesperson, the State Department contracted with SCL between February of 2017 and February 2018, paying $496,232 for a project involving more than a hundred “qualitative in-depth, in-person interviews with potential terrorist recruits, returned foreign terrorists, and terrorist recruiters.” The interviews were voluntary and took place primarily in the United Kingdom — the State Department “did not fund any work by SCL conducted in the United States or using personal data from social media platforms.”
On 16 March 2018, Facebook announced that SCL and Cambridge Analytica had gained access to American users’ data without their consent in 2015; they were subsequently banned from the platform amid a firestorm of controversy, and after Facebook officials learned that the data had not been deleted upon their request.
Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group came under fire after whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed that former Breitbart and Trump campaign executive Steve Bannon used the firm as a “psychological warfare tool.” Britain’s Channel 4 revealed through a four-month investigation culminating in a series of short documentary videos that the firm engaged in practices like attempting to compromise political rivals using prostitutes, manipulating the behavior of voters in key geographical areas by using data mined from their Facebook profiles, and anonymously feeding toxic and misleading information into the “bloodstream” of the Internet without leaving any identifiable traces of branding.
SCL Group has been contracted by the State Department's Global Engagement Center to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization.
By Bethania Palma
20 March 2018
Gil C / Shutterstock.com
A psychometrics company that has been banned by Facebook for improperly acquiring and deploying user information in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election has a half-million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of State to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization, according to State Department officials.
According to a State Department spokesperson, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) contracted with the Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) Group, the London-based parent company of Cambridge Analytica, to “conduct audience analysis and research to better understand ISIS recruitment and radicalization to violence.” As of 20 March 2018, the yearlong contract is winding down, even as Cambridge Analytica comes under scrutiny for tactics used to help secure a long-shot electoral victory for United States President Donald Trump.
According to public information and the spokesperson, the State Department contracted with SCL between February of 2017 and February 2018, paying $496,232 for a project involving more than a hundred “qualitative in-depth, in-person interviews with potential terrorist recruits, returned foreign terrorists, and terrorist recruiters.” The interviews were voluntary and took place primarily in the United Kingdom — the State Department “did not fund any work by SCL conducted in the United States or using personal data from social media platforms.”
On 16 March 2018, Facebook announced that SCL and Cambridge Analytica had gained access to American users’ data without their consent in 2015; they were subsequently banned from the platform amid a firestorm of controversy, and after Facebook officials learned that the data had not been deleted upon their request.
Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group came under fire after whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed that former Breitbart and Trump campaign executive Steve Bannon used the firm as a “psychological warfare tool.” Britain’s Channel 4 revealed through a four-month investigation culminating in a series of short documentary videos that the firm engaged in practices like attempting to compromise political rivals using prostitutes, manipulating the behavior of voters in key geographical areas by using data mined from their Facebook profiles, and anonymously feeding toxic and misleading information into the “bloodstream” of the Internet without leaving any identifiable traces of branding.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/03/20/cambridge-analytica-parent-company-banned-facebook-contract-state-department/
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