Dems: Cambridge Analytica CEO misled Congress in testimony

Two Democratic lawmakers alleged to BuzzFeed News on Friday that Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix misled them in testimony by denying that his company obtained personal data from millions of Americans through Facebook.

Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who sit on the House Intelligence Committee, say Nix could face charges of lying to Congress based on new information about how Cambridge Analytica obtained data from 87 million Americans.

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“Cambridge Analytica has not been honest with us,” Castro said. “Charges should be pursued against him” if he can be proven to have made the error deliberately, he added.

“His testimony was at odds with the truth,” Quigley said.

Nix testified to the committee last year that Cambridge Analytica did not receive data on Americans through Facebook or a third-party that used the service, according to BuzzFeed sources familiar with the still-secret testimony.

But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified this week that Nix’s company obtained the data on as many as 87 million people from a third-party personality quiz app that utilized users’ friends lists to gather information on other people without their consent.

“We need to understand how Cambridge Analytica acquired all the data from Facebook, whether they shared it or sold it to third parties, and how they used it, including its use with any political campaigns,” Castro told BuzzFeed.

Nix was suspended by the data firm last month after a British television station aired secretly obtained footage of him discussing an idea to entrap a political candidate by sending women to his house.

“In the view of the Board, Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” a statement from Cambridge Analytica read last month.