New Delhi:
The Congress was a client of Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis firm accused in the Facebook data privacy scandal, claimed Christopher Wylie — the whistleblower who lifted the lid on political consultancy — on Tuesday while deposing before the digital, culture, media and sport committee of the UK Parliament.
The whistleblower claimed that Cambridge Analytica had worked on “all kinds of projects” in India.
“I believe Cambridge Analytica’s client was Congress, but I know that they’ve also done all kind of projects both regionally… I don’t remember a national project, I know regionally,” said Wylie while responding to a question on CA’s work in India by Labour’s Paul Fareely.
“I mean India is so big, one state could be as big as Britain. But they (CA) do have offices there, they have staff there. I believe I have some documentation on India which I can also provide to the committee,” Wylie informed the British Parliamentary Committee.
Wylie also informed the UK Parliament that he had joined the parent company Strategic Communications Ltd (SCL) before Cambridge Analytica was formed.
IT expert Paul Olivier Dehaye, who gave evidence to the committee with Wylie, referred to the death of Wylie’s predecessor Romanian national Dan Muresan, who had allegedly worked in India for the Congress.
“There are stories that have started to come out of Wylie’s Romanian predecessor’s involvement in India, that when he died in Kenya, he was working for Congress, according to reports from India.
“Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie has accepted before British Parliamentary committee that Cambridge Analytica worked for the Congress Party. This vindicates what we have been saying from day one. Rahul Gandhi has been trying to divert attention all these while,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted.
The law minister demanded an apology from the Congress Party to the nation for "data theft" and "trying to manipulate voters".
