Ex-Cambridge Analytica CEO lied, says Academic

LONDON: A Cambridge University academic says the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica, the election consultancy at the heart of the Facebook privacy scandal, lied to British lawmakers investigating fake news.

Academic Aleksandr Kogan’s company, Global Science Research, developed a Facebook app that vacuumed up data from people who signed up to use the app as well as information from their Facebook friends. Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to profile US voters and target them with ads during the 2016 election to help elect Donald Trump. It denies the charge.

Kogan appeared before the House of Commons’ media committee on Tuesday and was asked whether former Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix told the truth when he testified that none of the company’s data came from Global Science Research. “That’s a fabrication,” Kogan told committee Chairman Damian Collins.