Whistleblower says 'cheating' may have changed Brexit vote outcome

The Canadian whistleblower at the heart of the Facebook privacy scandal says he believes it is "reasonable" to conclude that "cheating" in the Brexitvote through the manipulation of data to influence votersmay have altered the outcome.

Chris Wylie made the statement while testifying before theBritish parliamentary committee on mediain the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analyticascandal, which began with his allegations that CambridgeAnalyticaimproperly harvested details of 50 million Facebook users and used the material in U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Wylie is a data scientist who helped found CambridgeAnalyticaand left the company in 2014.

Wylietold the British committeeon Tuesday that Vote Leave, the official campaign backing Britain's exit from the European Union, also had access to data that was inappropriately collected from millions of Facebook users.

During his testimony, Wylie implicated British Columbia-basedmarketing and software development companyAggregateIQ(AIQ), sayinghe "absolutely" believedAIQhad drawn on CambridgeAnalytica'sdatabases for its work on theBrexitreferendum.

The data would be used to influence what certainvoters saw on social media, Wylie said. His understanding, he told the committee, was thatAIQwas targeting people who were seen as key to swaying the result of thereferendum.

Wylie also repeated an allegation that AIQhelpedsidestep Brexitcampaign spending limits which had previously been made by whistleblower and former Vote Leave volunteer Shahmir Sanni, who has submitted documentation to the U.K.'s Electoral Commission.

AIQ co-founders Jeff Silvester and ZackMassingham, both based in Victoria, B.C., did not respond to multiple requests for interviews to respond to Sanni'sallegations. But in a statement, the company denied any wrongdoing.

"AggregateIQ works in full compliance within all legal and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions where we operate," the company told CBC News, and has "never knowingly been involved in any illegal activity."

Because of the links between the two companies, Wylie said, Vote Leave got the "the next best thing" to Cambridge Analytica when it hired AIQ, "a company that can do virtually everything that [Cambridge Analytica]can do but with a different billing name."

AIQhas publicly distanced itself from Cambridge Analytica. In a statement posted on its website on March 24,AIQsaid it"has never been and is not a part of CambridgeAnalyticaor SCL. Aggregate IQ has never entered into a contract with CambridgeAnalytica. Chris Wylie has never been employed by AggregateIQ."

SCLis the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.

Wylie told Britain's Observer newspaper that he was instrumental in AIQ'sfoundingwhen he was the research director of SCL. He said they shared underlying technology and worked so closely together that some Cambridge Analytica staff often referred to the Canadian firm as a "department."

Canadian whistleblower gives damning statements in U.K. testimony

6 years ago

Duration 2:55

'You cannot call yourself somebody who believes in British law and win by breaking British law in order to achieve that goal,' says Christopher Wylie

Wylie also accused AIQof operating unethically on a broad scale.

"This is a company that has gone around the world and undermined democratic institutions in all kinds of countries. They could care less as to whether or not their work is compliant because they like to win," he told the committee.

Specifically, Wylie said AIQworked on projects relating to the Nigerian election that involved "distributing violent videos of people being bled to death to intimidate voters."

The committee chair noted that Wylie has provided "a large number of documents" to support his allegations around AIQ's involvement in Nigeria.

Wylie said AIQhas been able to distance itself somewhat from controversial activities because it has"licensed their intellectual property."

During his testimony, Wylie said he was "incredibly remorseful" for his role in developing the data-targetingtechnology that made the alleged breaches possible.

But he also noted he is not against data targeting as a wholebecause it's possible to do it in "an ethical way."

AIQ is now the subject of aninvestigation by B.C.'s privacy commissioner, and on Tuesday the federal privacy watchdog said it has gotteninvolved, as well.

In an emailed statement to CBCNews, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said it had "been in contact with our provincial counterpart in British Columbia, which has been examining matters related toAggregateIQ, and our discussions with them are ongoing."

'We played no role in the U.K. referendum'

Cambridge Analytica, which has also been embroiled in growing public scrutiny over use of online data,issued a statement Tuesdaysaying Wylie"was a part-time contractor who left Cambridge Analytica in July 2014 and has no direct knowledge of the company's work or practices since that date."

In its statement, the company said: "We played no role in the U.K. referendum on EU membership."

Alexander Nix, who has been suspended as Cambridge Analytica'sCEOpending an investigation, has been recalled to appear before the same committee. The committee requested that he speak to it again after reports in the media, including a Channel 4 documentary, revealed more detail about the company's methods.

Ben Bradshaw, a Labour MP who was in favour of the U.K. remaining in the EU, told CBCNews Network that Wylie's testimonyraised "very serious questions which parliamentarians here now believe need to be answered."

Zuckerberg sending delegate to committee

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberghas also been asked to testify before the British parliamentary committee about the data privacy scandal.

But Facebook, which is also facing intense scrutiny and investigations in the U.S.,has instead offered to sendchief technology officer Mike Schroepfer or chief product officer Chris Cox.

Damian Collins, chair of the committee, urged Zuckerberg on Tuesdayto "think again" about choosing not to appear
and repeated an offer to have him testify via video link.