There are two companies, called Cambridge Analytica and Aggregate IQ, specializing in massive data harvesting. The former was originally part of British military operations, and now backed by billionaires. These billionaires, Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer, are dedicated to destroying liberal democracy, trading in disinformation, deception, the overturning of the rather ineffectual electoral laws in the West, and the introduction of a modern form of facism.
Cambridge Analytica used to work on psychological warfare – how to effect mass sentiment change of electoral outcomes and “win hearts and minds”. Now, under Thiel’s ownership it collects microdata from Facebook and other online sites on personality traits, immigration, political partisanship, sexuality, magazines read, holiday destinations, jobs, tax etc in enormous detail, matching the information with people’s addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. This data is meticulously stored and focuses on the most vulnerable and discontented parts of the population. Educated and knowledgeable people are not their thing.
Aggregate IQ is an obcure Canadian company that uses the data gleaned by sister company Cambridge Analytica to identify suitable targets, shower them with bogus stories and alternative facts, and to get them riled up. (Mercer owns Cambridge Analytica and the “intellectual property” of Aggregate IQ). The single aim is to focus on the most vulnerable and discontented parts of the population, and, using psych-ops, getting them to the polls to vote for extreme candidates or objectives, while persuading liberal-minded voters to stay at home. The disruption clique, headed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer, are connected with Trump, Bannon, Farage, Arron Banks and the alt-right. Bannon ran Cambridge Analytica during the Brexit referendum.
Carole Cadwallader, who wrote the original exposure for The Observer, writes , “This is not a story about social psychology and data analytics. It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian popullation. There is nothing democratic or transparent about the the whole operation.
It is alleged that this very secret operation swung the votes in the three American states that won Trump the Electoral College, and that the activities of Aggregate IQ, a company based in Canada, swung the Brexit vote by getting out the British voters who wanted the immigrants out. Part of the gang who are engaged on this are moving towards what is euphemistally named “managed democracy”.
The point is that in both the American election and the Brexit referendum, the margins of votes between the parties were tiny. Hillary actually easily won the popular vote. By focussing on and manipulating states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania (with big Electoral College votes), and infuriating Trump sympathisers using bogus stories, downright lies and hate tales about Hillary, the Democrats, main media and the civil service, not to mention promising policies that are never meant to be kept, the whole election outcome turned turtle. Likewise, the Leave vote in Britain hung on a small minority of manipulated votes, person by person, bogus “fact” by bogus “fact” about the EU, making a fool and an ass of liberal democracy. You don’t need to manipulate all that many people to make that crucial difference. We are being manipulated and don’t even realise it. Epicurus would turn in his grave. (This article originally appeared in The Observer, by Carole Cadwalladr, and was later carried by The Guardian. I have precised it and clarified it – it was originally 4 pages long)