Facebook: Come clean about the Cambridge Analytica data breach
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckergerg
In 2015, Donald Trump's campaign data firm, Cambridge Analytica, used a researcher to illicitly cull user data from 50 million Facebook users -- the researcher lied to Facebook users, telling them the information was only for "academic research," when it really for the Trump campaign and other clients. Trump then used that data to influence millions of Americans in the 2016 elections.
Cambridge Analytica was created by Trump super-funder, far-right conservative billionaire Robert Mercer. Mercer's daughter Rebekah sits on the board, and Steve Bannon had a seat as well.
It gets worse. Around the same time, Cambridge Analytica, a British-based firm owned by a UK defense contractor, reached out to to a Russian oil company, asking if they might be interested in learning how the company influences American voters. You might ask yourself why a Russian oil company needs information on influencing American voters only a few months before the start of the US presidential campaign season. Good question.
Now, we learn in a shocking undercover video by Britain's Channel 4 released Monday night, that Cambridge Analytica claims to bribe politicians, and send Ukrainian prostitutes to their residences, in order to help Cambridge Analytica's clients undermine those politicians. Not only is this sleazy as hell, but bribery is a crime.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. A former Facebook employee says 200 million or more users may have been violated in similar schemes, by companies using the same tactics as Cambridge Analytica. And now we find out that Cambridge Analytica's parent company has been doing work with the US State Department and NATO.
Enough is enough. If Facebook is ever going to restore our confidence, it needs to come clean about what Cambridge Analytica and other firms have done with our user data, which Facebook users had their data violated by these outside companies, and what Facebook plans to do to fix the problem so it never happens again.
Please sign the petition demanding Facebook come clean, and share. Thanks so much.
JOHN ARAVOSIS
AMERICAblog Action
Washington, DC
PS I did a podcast yesterday about the Cambridge Analytica news. You can watch it here on YouTube.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckergerg
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[Your Name]
If Facebook is ever going to restore our confidence, you needs to come clean about what Cambridge Analytica and other firms have done with our user data, which Facebook users had their data violated by these outside companies, and what Facebook plans to do to fix the problem so it never happens again.