Today, (right now actually!) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing questions at a joint session of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees (which you can watch live here). Zuckerberg stressed that, being a Facebook founder, Cambridge Analytica breaching 87 million users without their consent during the 2016 Trump campaign is his responsibility. And as the hearing progresses and representatives grill him about privacy settings and preventative measures moving forward, Cambridge Analytica is live-tweeting. A lot. The gloves are off.
“We did not hack Facebook or break any laws – SCL Elections licensed data from a research company called GSR which obtained the data via a tool provided by Facebook, a common practice at the time,” the political data firm wrote, adding, “Cambridge Analytica is primarily a data science consultancy and marketing agency focused on commercial clients. Our politics division works globally with campaigns on the center-left and center-right.”
We did not hack Facebook or break any laws – SCL Elections licensed data from a research company called GSR which obtained the data via a tool provided by Facebook, a common practice at the time.
— Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) April 10, 2018
Cambridge Analytica also shared a release detailing the data they used during the 2016 US presidential campaign.
We used neither the GSR data nor any of its derivatives on the Trump campaign. We used data from the RNC, public sources such as the voter registry, commercial data brokers and polling we collected under a clear statement of consent https://t.co/hoaElZqeTx
— Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) April 10, 2018
View the live-tweets on Cambridge Analytica’s Twitter feed.
Less than 21 hours before the hearing, the firm shared another release, stating, “Get the truth behind the speculation and accusations with these 10 key facts”:
Get the truth behind the speculation and accusations with these 10 key facts https://t.co/oW0827YQCa
— Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) April 9, 2018
It’s safe to say we can expect more live-tweets from Cambridge Analytica tomorrow when Zuckerberg testifies in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which you can watch live here). The gloves won’t be coming back on anytime soon. They’re off — they’re so off.
