The Great hack, Cambridge, a documentary on over the top (OTT) streaming platform – Netflix, based on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has shown the Indian National Congress party poster beside the chair of the CEO of the company. This reiterates that Congress party was a top client of the company, and should bring crippling shame to the Congress Party which ran an unethical election campaign with the help of Cambridge Analytica.
https://twitter.com/niks_1985/status/1154199526930034688
Indian press picking up that Cambridge Analytica worked for the Congress Party – and it’s causing a storm. Spotted hanging on the wall in Cambridge A’s office when I was there recently with @BBCTwo… https://t.co/2s0LEmw4QK pic.twitter.com/guw1EWgQf8
— Jamie Bartlett (@JamieJBartlett) March 28, 2018
The picture in the CEO’s office wall was seen in 2018 after whistle-blower Christopher Wylie took the name of the Congress, and the Netflix documentary maintained that very important detail, which is that the Congress has been a major client of the company.
2017 is the time around which Cambridge Analytica, the UK-based firm at the heart of a massive worldwide data breach was hired by the Congress for its election campaign. The company has been accused of stealing Facebook data of millions to influence elections. Cambridge Analytica which works with big data, drives on psychoanalysis of internet users through the traces left from their internet activities, that is, what they search, what they like, where they live and quite possibly, who they are. With the help of leaked private information of millions, Cambridge Analytica interfered in elections around the world by targeting specific audiences with political propaganda and more often fake news. Cambridge Analytica is under investigation for serious involvement in the Trump Presidential campaign and the Brexit vote among others. The severity of the privacy breach and unethical campaigning can be felt by noting that for having overlooked a data theft of over 87 million users by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook was fined a whopping $5 billion dollars in the United States..
The Netflix documentary is based on the massive controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica. Its role was exposed by a whistleblower within the company, who flagged the activities of his company, citing a possible breach of privacy of millions of internet users and unethical election campaigning. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, in a London court stated “They (Cambridge Analytica) worked extensively in India. They have an office in India. I believe their client was Congress, but I know that they have done all kinds of projects.”
The Congress Party’s involvement was exposed by the whistleblower and after further investigation, the then CEO, Alexander Nix’s office was found boasting a framed picture of the INC symbol indicating that the Congress is indeed their client. This scene has made it into the Netflix documentary and the Congress, one more time has nowhere to hide with its wrongdoings.
Rahul Gandhi is also known to have met with Cambridge Analytics then CEO Alexander Nix to discuss a psychoanalysis driven election strategy. Congress has denied these connections but substantial evidence against them proves otherwise. Congress leader Shehzad Poonawalla said, “The presentation was made by Alexander Nix himself before Rahul Gandhi and one could see the remarkable difference in the social media strategy and campaign of Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party which was very dry until then, everyone could see the sudden spurt in Congress social media presence once Cambridge Analytica got a go ahead from Congress Party.”
Cambridge Analytica helped the grand old party get engagements through illegal tactics, breaching the privacy of the users. The Cambridge Analytica case in the latest example which shows that welfare of the people is last thing in the Congress party’s list. The party is ready to compromise with the private data of individuals and organizations in order to win the election.
Since the general election of 2014, the impact of social media of political campaigning of the Congress has been unusually tremendous. It has come out to be the quickest and the most direct way of communication between a political candidate and his audience, the potential voters. It also gives way to enhanced facilitation of politician‐public interaction.
This is precisely what Prime Minister Narendra Modi realized back in 2009 when he was campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections and since then has successfully used the medium to connect with his followers and also helped in increasing the party’s base.
The Congress party was late entrant in the social media game and it wanted to become on par with BJP in terms of social media reach and influence. The party in sheer desperation is known to have hired Cambridge Analytica and the party knew that the company would use illegal means to increase the reach of the party and its leader- Rahul Gandhi and still they hired Cambridge Analytica. Rahul Gandhi talks about ‘idealistic’ politics but when it comes to abiding by the principles, he and the Congress party are absolute outlaws.
