Facebook has abeyance the Canadian abstracts close with which the official Vote Leave attack spent 40% of its budget, as the Cambridge Analytica aspersion continues to unfold.
On Friday, Facebook appear it had abeyant AggregateIQ from its belvedere afterward letters the aggregation may be affiliated to Cambridge Analytica’s ancestor company, SCL.
In its statement, Facebook said: “In ablaze of contempo letters that AggregateIQ may be affiliated with SCL and may, as a result, accept break accustomed FB user data, we accept added them to the account of entities we accept abeyant from our belvedere while we investigate.
“Our centralized analysis continues, and we will abet absolutely with any investigations by authoritative authorities.”
The aggregation played a analytical role in Britain’s European Union referendum, with a absolute of £3.5m getting spent on its casework by four altered campaigns: Vote Leave, BeLeave, Veterans for Britain and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party. Additionally, it did plan for John Bolton, the anew appointed civic aegis adviser to Donald Trump, and the US senators Thom Tillis and Ted Cruz.
The Observer aboriginal appear links amid Cambridge Analytica and AIQ endure May. Two weeks ago, Christopher Wylie, the ex-Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, told how he had helped set up the aggregation if he asked accompany in his home boondocks of Victoria, British Columbia, to appear and plan with Cambridge Analytica. AIQ has denied Wylie had any captivation in ambience up the company.
At that time, AIQ removed a adduce from Dominic Cummings, Vote Leave’s arch strategist, from the home page of its website. Previously, it had said: “Without a doubt, the Vote Leave attack owes a abundant accord of its success to the plan of AggregateIQ. We couldn’t accept done it after them.”
Ten canicule ago, Wylie gave affirmation about AIQ to British MPs on the culture, media and action baddest board and aswell handed over acknowledged abstracts that showed the access amid it and SCL Elections, including two affairs and an IP licence as able-bodied as an email amid Jeff Silvester, the cofounder of AIQ, and Alexander Nix, the arch controlling of Cambridge Analytica.
The email, about the attack for Bolton, referenced Aleksandr Kogan and the Facebook abstracts he had harvested on account of Cambridge Analytica.
Last week, AIQ told the Observer it was not a absolute allotment and/or the Canadian annex of Cambridge Analytica, and that it had not been complex the corruption of Facebook data.
The aggregation is already intertwined in an analysis by the Balloter Commission, which in November reopened an analysis into a donation of £625,000 that Vote Leave had accustomed its adolescence campaign, BeLeave, adage there were “reasonable area to doubtable an answerability may accept been committed”.
It is altogether acknowledged for one attack to accord to addition if they are separate, but the donation went beeline from Vote Leave to AIQ, and a additional whistleblower, Shahmir Sanni, a 22-year-old advance with BeLeave, told the Observer they had no ascendancy over how the money was spent. Vote Leave has again denied the allocation amid the campaigns and said the donation was accepted pursuant to balloter law. If the agency aboriginal looked at this in March 2017 it agreed with Vote Leave.
The advice commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, who is arch addition analysis into the use of abstracts in the referendum, said: “AggregateIQ has not been abnormally accommodating with our investigation. We are demography added accomplish in that matter.” AIQ says it has answered all the questions put to it by the commission.