Cambridge Analytica – How its Alliance With Congress Jeopardizes India’s National Security
Based on a person’s OCEAN map, psychometrics can describe a person’s personality. OCEAN is the acronym for Openness (how open you are to new experiences?), Conscientiousness (how much of a perfectionist are you?), Extroversion (how sociable are you?), Agreeableness (how considerate and cooperative you are?) and Neuroticism (are you easily upset?). When Michal Kosinski (student from Warsaw) pursuing PhD at Cambridge teamed up with David Stillwell to use a Facebook app to get data on the “The Big Five” dimensions of psychometric analysis (OCEAN), he received millions of replies. Now, those two – Kosinski and Stillwell – had the world’s largest psychometric database alongwith the Facebook profiles of those subjects!
They had a goldmine in their hands! When they combined the insights from the Big Five analysis with Facebook data (what they “liked,” shared or posted on Facebook, or what gender, age, place of residence they specified) – they could make remarkable predictions about the person. A model that was fine-tuned by these two even further. The accuracy and the detail about what a person was and will do was now astonishing!
In 2012, Kosinski proved that on the basis of an average of 68 Facebook “likes” by a user, it was possible to predict their skin color (with 95 percent accuracy), their sexual orientation (88 percent accuracy), and their affiliation to the Democratic or Republican party (85 percent). But it didn’t stop there. Intelligence, religious affiliation, as well as alcohol, cigarette and drug use, could all be determined. From the data it was even possible to deduce whether someone’s parents were divorced.
The strength of their modeling was illustrated by how well it could predict a subject’s answers. Kosinski continued to work on the models incessantly: before long, he was able to evaluate a person better than the average work colleague, merely on the basis of ten Facebook “likes.” Seventy “likes” were enough to outdo what a person’s friends knew, 150 what their parents knew, and 300 “likes” what their partner knew. More “likes” could even surpass what a person thought they knew about themselves.
You can compare your personality from your “digital footprint” in this app with your OCEAN questionnaire result here.
Kosinski and his team were approached by Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) for the MyPersonality app database. SCL called itself as election management agency. It had been involved in several international political campaigns for various players and issues.
Some of the SCL offshoots have been involved in elections from Ukraine to Nigeria, helped the Nepalese monarch against the rebels, whereas others have developed methods to influence Eastern European and Afghan citizens for NATO.
A new subsidiary was created for US elections – Cambridge Analytica. Nigel Farage, the radical politician of Britain and at the forefront of the BREXIT campaign had signed up Cambridge Analytica (webpage since brought down – snapshot from archive.org) in November 2015.
It was then that Cambridge Analytica became the central tool for Donald Trump in his campaign.
Trump was technically illiterate if you will. With no computers in his office and no sophisticated understanding of social media, everyone of his social media posts and messages on the stage were orchestrated and carefully crafted.
“Pretty much every message that Trump put out was data-driven,” Alexander Nix remembers. On the day of the third presidential debate between Trump and Clinton, Trump’s team tested 175,000 different ad variations for his arguments, in order to find the right versions above all via Facebook. The messages differed for the most part only in microscopic details, in order to target the recipients in the optimal psychological way: different headings, colors, captions, with a photo or video. This fine-tuning reaches all the way down to the smallest groups, Nix explained in an interview with us. “We can address villages or apartment blocks in a targeted way. Even individuals.”
In the Miami district of Little Haiti, for instance, Trump’s campaign provided inhabitants with news about the failure of the Clinton Foundation following the earthquake in Haiti, in order to keep them from voting for Hillary Clinton. This was one of the goals: to keep potential Clinton voters (which include wavering left-wingers, African-Americans, and young women) away from the ballot box, to “suppress” their vote, as one senior campaign official told Bloomberg in the weeks before the election. These “dark posts”—sponsored news-feed-style ads in Facebook timelines that can only be seen by users with specific profiles—included videos aimed at African-Americans in which Hillary Clinton refers to black men as predators, for example.
Suppressing the vote of potential Clinton voters was one of the main goals! That is a very important point to remember and note as we go on in this article with our analysis.
Microtargeting voters by using Kosinski’s model of understanding the entire personality with data that is unheard of – became central to takeover of elections by unscrupulous individuals like Trump and Farage. And, they succeeded!
Cambridge Analytica is largely owned by an ultra American Right Wing (Christian) billionaire called Robert Mercer. He also owns the think-tank – Heartland Institute – that denies Climate Change and Mercer has also funded the right-wing US sites like Breitbart and CNSnews.
This Christian right-wing ecosystem has a primarily evangelist agenda which is also aligned with anti-semitic and Islamophobic views. On the social side, they work to back the following – which have been the central topics of the American right wing:
Climate change denial
Banning Abortion (“Pro-life”)
Ownership of guns
Now, these mix of issues is important when you are trying to analyze the impact of Cambridge Analytica on the next Indian Elections.
Congress Hired Cambridge in 2017
Moneycontrol and Business Standard reported in October 2017, that Congress was in talks with Cambridge Analytica for helping on the 2019 elections.
Cambridge Analytica has suggested the momentum for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls should be built with Assembly elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It has also proposed building a mobile app to analyse the performance of party candidates and draw a parallel with the opponents.
Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower (former Director of Research at CA) of the CA work, has called out the work that Cambridge Analytica did for Congress Party in India.
On March 27, the whistleblower in the case told a committee of the British parliament that CA had done “all kinds of projects” in India and that he believed their client was the Congress party.
Despite their denials, Congress has been found to have colluded with CA to impact the state elections and the national elections of 2019. Interestingly, it was an interview with the Cambridge Analytica CEO by BBC team which drove home the relationship ever more strongly.
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
What one sees in the video by BBC is a clear case of showcasing of its most important clients by Cambridge Analytica!
India’s National Security Compromised “Data by Data”!
Yes, collection of data by any organization with the goal to use it without permission is a big issue. But the collection of data by an external agency like Cambridge Analytica, which is patently an American Christian Right-Wing organization in its genesis and agendas it (and indeed its owners) back, makes it an issue of National Security!
Combine this with the efforts of Joshua Project – a pan-Christian denomation Evangelism initiative to convert “ethnic people”. Joshua project has a very large work in India.
Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ. Accurate, updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission. Revelation 5:9 and 7:9-10 show that there will be some from every tribe, tongue, nation and people before the Throne. (source)
Joshua Project has used historical information, surveys by Anthropological Survey of India and the data collected by various Churches which are members of India Mission Association (national federation of missions in India, which assists Missions and Churches in the proclamation of the Good news and in making disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples, languages, and geographical areas) to create a detailed database on India’s local communities.
The Anthropological Survey of India began a large study of the people of India in 1985. They initially identified more than 6,000 communities, but after further study reduced this count to something over 4,700 communities. However, their list of Main Communities includes only roughly 2,600 entries. Many of these main communities are divided into subgroups, and by state, resulting in an expanded list of more than 4,700 “communities”.
Omid was challenged by Luis Bush in 1996-1997 to create a list of several hundred of the largest communities in India, for an upcoming conference. Omid scrambled to create this list, and it was published (the “Blue Book”) by the India Missions Association in 1997. Omid has remarked several times he regretted this list entered into circulation, as he considered it to be incomplete and contained many errors. But he was trying to meet a deadline.
Omid has continued to expand and refine his list since the 1997 list was created. His current list corrects the errors in the earlier list, and is complete to the district level for India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Myanmar.
Between Cambridge Analytica and Joshua Project, the American Christian Right Wing groups have data on every person and every local community in India – with an express agenda – to Convert Indians to Christianity! And not just any Christian world view – but one that aligns with the viewpoint promoted by the likes of Robert Mercer! When the organizations coming to India to interfere with its elections come with their own religious and ideological agenda, then it is no longer just a business transaction for “using data for analytical election work” but a National invasion!
As this insightful article underscores – The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data – the data on India’s population is a treasure that can lead to many socio-economic and ideological attacks with an aim to change the very fabric of the country!
And interestingly which organization colludes to hand over India’s details to the American Christian Right-Wing network? Indian National Congress.
Targeting and Breaking up the “Hindu Nationalists”
I remember having many arguments with those who were “passionate Hindus” – and were strong Modi backers in the run up to Trump’s election in the US. They used to back Trump and his campaign. In fact many even volunteered for that campaign. Most of them had become strong Fox News and Breitbart news supporters and hated CNN. In other words, they were mirroring the information intake of the rabid Trump supporters.
Some of them even started and strongly – backing American Christian Right Wing topics like Gun Ownership.
Why were they doing so? Because of two reasons:
Their hero Rajiv Malhotra had argued in his book “Breaking India” that Hillary Clinton had a hidden Christian agenda that she was willing to push in India.
Trump was anti-Muslims which would “help fight one ‘enemy’ at least”
Now, it is correct that Clinton does have a hidden Christian agenda at the base of what she does and she has in the past and would have in the future pushed it in India. It is also a fact that Islamists from Saudi Arabia and specificially Pakistan have been working hard to spread and unleash terrorism in India. Checking them was paramount. Something that Trump has helped with.
I understood all these arguments but I was against the very basis and foundation of support for Trump and my take was that IF Trump won, which he did, the very strategy of FAKE NEWS (which was used extensively by CNS and Breitbart as well as Russian surrogates) would become a successful precedent.
Later, in my “Annual Predictions for 2018”, I had also suggested that the use of Cambridge Analytica by Congress in 2019 could be done in a same way as was done by Trump in 2017. It was waiting to happen.
Now, that is a reality.
And, unfortunately for all the “passionate Hindus”, no action would ever be taken against the likes of CA or its backers because its beneficiaries are at the helm in US and UK!
Worse, most of the “passionate Hindus” are new targets of the very same network of data manipulators. In the last few months, I have seen fissures being created in the “Strong Modi backing” groups of “passionate Hindus” by using the following issues and tactics:
Caste differences – specially amongst Patels – in Gujarat
Use of Hindi versus Kannada in Karnataka and Bengaluru
Fallout with Chandra Babu Naidu because of Special Status to Andhra Pradesh
Political maneuvering like – admission of Naresh Agrawal and working with PDP
It does not matter what the issue is, the messages are now crafted by “other side” for the social media and the critical sections are targeted to alter their mindset. And, many are.
You see, Modi backers amongst the Hindus are of different hues – from those who are rabidly anti Muslims and Christians and would like nothing short of finishing their existence to the modestly right of center who want to maintain their heritage but not like to get into argumentative mode. Both the groups are being chipped by the targeted messaging of CA backed data analytics.
Of all those “rabidly anti-others” group who backed BJP in 2014, almost everyone I see now is anti-Modi. Ditto for the those who are “liberal Hindus”. Why? Because the former have been made to believe that Modi isn’t Hindu enough and latter are made to believe that he is too right wing!
Meanwhile, there has been a consolidation within the groups that were traditionally anti-Modi. Muslims and Christians. Despite the strong development agenda, Muslims and Christians that I have seen on social media and otherwise, are almost rabidly anti-Modi. Even those who fancy themselves to be “liberal” are anything but. They are ideological fanatics. Their beliefs and mindsets have been consolidation and concretized with Fake news on every issue concerning Modi and BJP. Messages that are shared unabashedly by Congress officially, even by its President!
So, while there is an attempt at consolidation of Muslims and Christians to their ideological fanaticism, there is an attempt being made to break up traditional voters for BJP by targeted messaging.
How does this affect? Remember how Hillary’s supporters and voters were suppressed and kept away from the ballot boxes? A similar strategy in Gujarat almost succeeded with the strong show of NOTA despite BJP’s narrow win (Read Gujarat Elections 2017: Why BJP Really Lost)!!
Therefore, the 2019 elections will see suppression of BJP voters, besides breaking them down using ethnic, linguist, sect (Lingayat religion division) and ideological themes! And, those folks who argued for Trump thinking that his coming in will help India fight the Islamic terrorism will see how an even more resourceful and ferocious “state enemy” – the Christian Right Wing from US – break up the Indian elections with full backup of data that these “passionate Hindus” have created themselves for them! Coming of Hillary at best would have started her amateurish ways of pushing her Christian agenda, but her hatred for Trump would have decimated CA and its network! Coming of Trump will taken that option off the table.
In other words, the “passionate Hindus” have worked very hard to kill themselves by unleashing the demon of Cambridge Analytica and its treasonous Indian partners on India!
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