Kerala too came under Cambridge Analytica mining

Cambridge Analytica (CA), the British political consulting firm in the centre of the controversy surrounding the gathering of 50 million Facebook users in the US to influence the 2016 Presidential election, is now reported to have snooped on Keralites as well.

The firm has also figured in a war of words between the BJP and the Congress both accusing the other of using CA-harvested data for targeted electioneering work.

Christopher Wylie, the CA whistle-blower, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday that SCL India, the Indian arm of the British behavioural research and strategic communication company, had undertaken a research and communication campaign in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in 2007 ‘to support a trans-national programme for countering the Non-Designated Jihadism.

“The project focused on ancillary populations as opposed to perpetrators of violent Jihadism themselves and required in-depth motivational understanding of the populations of six states,” he said.

“I have been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL’s past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like,” he said in his Twitter post, which also lists cases of SCL/CA operations in India. He added that SCL India has a database of over 600 districts and 7 lakh villages, and the same is constantly being updated.

“Our micro-level information includes household level demographics, specifically focusing on caste data, linked to online mapping applications. Our services help clients to identify and target key groups within the population to effectively influence their behaviour to realise a desired outcome. We provide our clients with the research to develop and disseminate the right messages, from the right sources, using the right communication channels,” he said.