UK: House of Commons – Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee letter to Rebecca Stimson (Facebook UK) – “Oral evidence from Facebook” (01.05.2018)
The Questions the Committee wants answered. Below.
The Questions the Committee wants answered. Below.
It is weird, it is strange, but also very clear why President Uhuru Kenyatta, why Deputy President William Ruto and all of the political elite, and the Jubilee Party don’t want to touch the affiliate Cambridge Analytica. As the world is grasping with the toils and the states are asking for subpoena information and oral evidence from Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The Kenyan Government are walking around like nothing happen. Not like the lightning stroke down in 2013 and 2017, but just letting it go like spilled milk.
While other governments are looking into the madness, into the big-date breaches, where the Cambridge Analytica used their manpower and expertise to take private information from users of Facebook. Use that to target and make messages fitting the campaigns that hired them. This they did in Kenya, we got no idea to what extent, but clearly they have done their thing. Even the CEO has been proud about their activity. As the Kenyan government has hired the company and used their services.
There has been known that the company had connection with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), even as far the Commission own server was directly tapped by the government. While the Jubilee Party also used the affiliate Harris Media also to spread the messages and campaign agenda made by the Company, everything was elaborate and made to make sure the President got his way in the media. Even media companies was paid to make ready-made, microwaved articles to serve the public. Like dishes fitting the paradigm of the state. This isn’t just hearsay, it was the real deal. The Githeri Media was boosted and paid through the ranks of the Company. Cambridge was involved in everything, even wrote the speeches and notes that Kenyatta brought to the public. Clearly, the President Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU) was working directly with the Company making sure their stories was set straight.
This was done with precision and with full fury, they did it knowingly and misused their trust. This wasn’t just campaigning, but rigging with the mercy of American Company registered in the United Kingdom. With ICT Managers and hackers who took information and boosted the ruling regime. If this isn’t a massive theft, than nothing is. That the Cambridge Analytica would make sure and facilitate it this way. Shows how the company and their string-men are working to get their client fixed in position. That is maybe why US Ambassador Bob Godec has been such a loyal man to Kenyatta. Where he has worked for the benefit of the President and not for democratic values. They are not needed, when the President are spending on American Companies and using their products to extend his agenda. Even if that meaning rigging and a hostile takeover of the state.
If this isn’t investigated, if the ones behind the theft, the ones who has stolen a republic. The ones who has used manipulation, rigging and propaganda to benefit one man and his cronies. If that isn’t sorted out, the reality of it all will never matter. That Kenyatta got everything served, paid the Westerners a fortune and secured his victory, it was already Pyrrhic on 26th October 2017, but now it is a blatant lie. Manufactured election with a tin-soldier running the show.
This isn’t fun and games, this is a killing, a kill of democracy and a kill of institution and a death-stroke to believe how the citizens been used to targets themselves in a ploy to reinstate their client. It is without mercy, without justice and without consent. It is just mere facade and forgery. Nothing else, its the worst sort of realization.
It deserves to investigated, by Scotland Yard, by someone from the outside to do it properly, a foreign investigation unit, who works independently and can take all evidence and affidavits. To unleash the truth, reveal the madness and not only the open air implications that are there. Put it in system, collect more than the leaks, but actually get the whole truth and than indict the ones culprits behind it all. Peace.
Since it is now revealed how far the ICT Company and Campaign Monitor Company Cambridge Analytica went in the United States, where they analyzed and took information, collected and made sure to target the public, because of the information from 50 million United States Citizens. It is interesting because the connection the same company had in Kenya. They we’re hired and worked for the President. They worked for President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. They we’re connected with the ruling pary Jubilee and also with the Electoral Commission. This being the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
There been found that the Cambridge Analytica was in-charge of IEBC Web-pages, who knows what sort of information the company has stalled through the registers and the gist of public details. If they have collected similar information on Kenyan citizens in the same ways as in United States. They have already done it one place the years before in 2015 and 2016, why not do the same in Kenya in 2017. That would be plausible.
“Our data came from the myPersonality Facebook application which I ran from 2007 until it ceased data collection in 2012. Users consented to their data being used in research and then completed a Big Five personality questionnaire which gave them feedback on their results. Over the five years of its operation the app collected data from approximately 6 million users. We examined Facebook Likes from a subset of approximately 60,000 American users” (Stillwill, 2018).
So with the knowledge of the extended survey and collection of data in concerning of the American Election, I am sure the same company has done similar efforts in Kenya. To get the right views and make sure they are on the measures they needed to be. If not, why where you working for Kenyatta and serving his party with information. Just like they did for the Trump Campaign so they could target areas and come with the sort of ads and click-bait stories to catch the people in doubt. This is why the company was hired in the first place, to make sure the political campaign hit the home-run in battle states in the United States. You can wonder what the same company planned, what sort of collection of data and how many of the Kenyan citizen’s on Facebook, which has been collected from. Since that is not known, also what sort of play and what information they got by having the IEBC Web-Page on their server.
“There are many different potential sources for the additional information that could have been used. It is plausible that Cambridge Analytica Ltd also have a psychographic model of Prof. Carroll and Prof. Golumbia, given that they claim to use psychographics in their political advertising. Alternatively, Cambridge Analytica Ltd may have based its predictions on any number of alternative data points, such as whether Prof. Carroll and Prof. Golumbia are a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), are known to have purchased a gun, etc” (Stillwill, 2018).
So it is hard know what they used the collected data in the 2016 Elections in the United States, but that they had it and target it to the public is fairly obvious. Therefore, to expect the same in the run-offs in the 2017 in Kenya, seems likely too. If not they wouldn’t been billing the state and the ruling party. They wouldn’t have been working and making adverts, and also campaigns for the President. That is clearly and also understandable. We can just wonder what sort of details the company has on the citizens of Kenya and what they used it for. What they got from the IEBC before they used the servers. There are many open venues, but non is disclosed. This should be investigated, as the privacy and the rights of the citizens are taken for granted. Which is never right. There are already FinTech companies who has to much information on Kenyan citizens. This comes in the same regard. Peace.
Reference:
Stillwill, Dr. David John – ‘Subject Matter: Section 7 DPA request (“Subject Access Request”) sent by Prof. Carroll to Cambridge Analytica Ltd, whose parent company is SCL Elections Ltd, on 17th February 2017’ (16.03.2018)