A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Donald Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum, according to a new investigation. As Britain heads to the polls again, questions are being asked about whether the electoral process is still fit for purpose.
The story centres on Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that played a role in both the Trump and Brexit campaigns. Former employees describe the company as a 'psychological warfare firm' that used military-style methods to effect mass sentiment change in elections. The firm was originally called SCL Elections and was bought by Robert Mercer, a secretive hedge fund billionaire.
In January 2013, a young American postgraduate intern suggested to SCL's chief executive, Alexander Nix, that the firm should get into data. She referred him to Palantir, a data-mining firm owned by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and a major investor in Facebook. Palantir has contracts with governments worldwide, including GCHQ and the NSA.
The investigation reveals three strands: how the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US; how British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire; and how the UK is tying its future to an America being radically remade by Trump.
Senior intelligence figures have warned of the risks. In December 2016, MI6 head Alex Younger said: 'The connectivity that is the heart of globalisation can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims. The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty.'
