5 ms·

SCL – A Very British Coup

101 points by branchless 9y ago

throwawaymanbot 9y ago
Shock horror.. some of the British establishment are far-right types who would rather cause extreme havoc?
trifidpaw 9y ago
The webpage of Mark Turnbull for the SSI at Exeter University appears to have been taken down days after the article (story) was published. https://web.archive.org/web/20180321124441/https://www.exeter.ac.uk/strategy/members/markturnbull/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180321124441/https://www.exete...
- pjc50 9y ago
  Hah! He mentions Bell Pottinger: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottinger-expelled-from-pr-trade-body-after-south-africa-racism-row https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottin... https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottinger-thatcher-pr-clients https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottin...
- branchless 9y ago
  Love it when they take these down but wayback has it. Instead why not put a banner saying "you really _should_ read this" at the top of the page!
- ttctciyf 9y ago
  It's not just the webpage. > The University of Exeter has confirmed that it is no longer associated with one the directors of scandal-hit Cambridge Analytica. > It was revealed by DevonLive.com on Wednesday that the company's managing director Mark Turnbull was an honorary fellow at the Exeter University Strategy and Security Institute. > The university confirmed on Thursday that his status has now been revoked. https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-university-cuts-ties-man-1372587 https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-university-...
quantumofmalice 9y ago
I'm relatively indifferent towards the matter, social media is cancer, but compare and contrast narratives: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/harper-reed-obama-campaign-microtargeting/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/harper-reed-oba...
- ballenf 9y ago
  Are there differences to the approaches taken by Obama vs. Trump in terms of leveraging social media data? Did Obama do it in a more transparent way (is that even possible given the disconnect between the amount of data people give away vs. what they think is going on)?
  - vanderZwan 9y ago
    Well, both try to reach an audience with their message, but one side is practically (if not literally) boasting that they are manipulating an deceiving their targets and using what they know about their prey against them.
  - Cenk 9y ago
    Michael Simon (@mbsimon) who ran the microtargeting team for Obama in 08: >How dare you! We didn’t steal private Facebook profile data from voters under false pretenses. OFA voluntarily solicited opinions of hundreds of thousands of voters. We didn’t commit theft to do our groundbreaking work. There’s more in the thread: https://twitter.com/mbsimon/status/975231597183229953 https://twitter.com/mbsimon/status/975231597183229953
    - chvid 9y ago
      What did you expect them to say? “Don’t be so hard on CA. We had more people and much better data.”
    - maxerickson 9y ago
      I expect the fact that the OFA app was pulling friend data would be surprising to at least the friends. Which Facebook turned that feature off years ago. Of course, they turned that feature off so that people looking to obtain microtargetting services will need to buy them from Facebook. Which is funny. I've see some people talking about how the Clinton campaign relied on an in house data team for their Facebook work, and that the Trump campaign worked more closely with Facebook employees (the Facebook employees were on site at the campaign, working for free because the campaign was such a big customer).
pjc50 9y ago
Also: https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/976848641628491778 https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/976848641628491778 "Suspended Cambridge Analytica Chief Executive Alexander Nix has been recalled to the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee which claims there were "a number of inconsistencies" in evidence he gave to MPs last month"
GreeniFi 9y ago
I would say that most Brits I meet are good. But there is a certain kind, usually an Englishman, who is pure selfish evil. I’ve lived in a few countries where SCL/CA has been active, and its destabilizing propaganda resulted in death and turmoil. I think there are three drivers at play in the formation of these, “the worst kind of Englishmen”: 1. Boarding school syndrome, covered in this article for its role in Brexit. It renders its victims as lacking empathy. https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/boarding-schools-bad-leaders-politicians-bullies-bumblers https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/educatio... 2. A sort of Affluenza which has infected the British upper and upper middle classes. As the UK has become more and more expensive, the upper middle class lifestyle, involving private schools, a flat in London and a house in the country, have become out of reach, and it has induced a sort of elite desperation. 3. An English ‘exceptionalism’. Many Brits are somewhat parochial, and although they know very little of the outside world, seen through the eyes of empire in a very simplistic way (which many elites do), you can get this type of behavior taking place.
- branchless 9y ago
  The UK has had a few of these things now: 1. Lots of dirty USA bank business pre 2008 conducted through London which arguably hid the scale of the crisis building up, making it worse 2. Russian dirty money into London, which culminates in some Russians getting killed in the UK. Not easy to get the dirty money in without the dirty behaviour. 3. CLS/Cambridge Analytica - this has effected not only the UK (Brexit) but also USA elections. All three are directly linked to the UK establishment and the Conservative party and The City of London. How many chances will the rest of the developed world give the UK before deciding it's just not worth engaging? And this is before the coming collapse as the UK cannot raise interest rates, makes very little and is about to jettison itself from the EU.
- khhh35575544 9y ago
  Hey don't hold back, tell us what you really think! I wonder where you are from? Do you really think the Brits have a monopoly on villainry? Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Columbus etc., Armenia, Arab/Jewish slave trade, US disruption of elections worldwide since ever.. Is my point made?
DonaldFisk 9y ago
Undercover reporters investigate Cambridge Analytica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ The information commissioner is still waiting for her request for a search warrant, made on Monday, to be heard by a high court judge: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/22/cambridge-analytica-warrant-high-court-adjourns-hearing-information-commissioner?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Sync_Dev https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/22/cambridge-an... Meanwhile, crates with documents have been removed from the building: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/information-commissioner-cambridge-analytica_uk_5ab03488e4b0697dfe19a876 https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/information-commissio... Doesn't look good.
- branchless 9y ago
  The UK establishment are directly involved in CLS. Are you sure there will be a genuine investigation? UK Saudi arms inquiry was withheld because it didn't fit UK aims: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-terrorist-funding-report-saudia-arabia-focus-not-publish-conservatives-government-a7766381.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-... No prosecutions for 2008 banking collapse. I think it looks pretty good (for CLS).
  - OrganicMSG 9y ago
    I think that the more the UK state covers for CLS, the worse the blowback could be. Every single country that CLS has been involved in will have an official starting an investigation and dusting off the extradition forms.
    - branchless 9y ago
      The ruling party has prominent people on the board / with shares! This is why you and I are not in the UK establishment. We are inhibited by shame and a fear of losing. When we step back they double down. Everything or nothing, no in between. It is their birthright.
      - 9y ago
OrganicMSG 9y ago
So, if this is all to be believed and we link it with what else is known, elements within the oldest of the Old Guard at the top of UK politics, alongside the Putin oligarchy and some US billionaires who align with the Dark Enlightenment orthodoxy, are deliberately destabilising the US political system, trying to break up the EU, while actively undermining hundreds of other democratic systems around the world. I really started to wonder what the hell was going on when right wingers started shouting the anti-globalist slogans of the late '90s left wing anarchist movement, as that clearly was an agenda that was unlikely to have organically transferred. A group of billionaires wanting to rule openly over balkanised microstates, in opposition to the globalising efforts of the liberal free marketeer billionaires, was one though that kept coming back to me. And look, here they all are.

101 points by branchless 9y ago

Shock horror.. some of the British establishment are far-right types who would rather cause extreme havoc?

The webpage of Mark Turnbull for the SSI at Exeter University appears to have been taken down days after the article (story) was published. https://web.archive.org/web/20180321124441/https://www.exeter.ac.uk/strategy/members/markturnbull/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180321124441/https://www.exete...

pjc50 9y ago
Hah! He mentions Bell Pottinger: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottinger-expelled-from-pr-trade-body-after-south-africa-racism-row https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottin... https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottinger-thatcher-pr-clients https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/bell-pottin...
branchless 9y ago
Love it when they take these down but wayback has it. Instead why not put a banner saying "you really _should_ read this" at the top of the page!
ttctciyf 9y ago
It's not just the webpage. > The University of Exeter has confirmed that it is no longer associated with one the directors of scandal-hit Cambridge Analytica. > It was revealed by DevonLive.com on Wednesday that the company's managing director Mark Turnbull was an honorary fellow at the Exeter University Strategy and Security Institute. > The university confirmed on Thursday that his status has now been revoked. https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-university-cuts-ties-man-1372587 https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-university-...

quantumofmalice 9y ago

I'm relatively indifferent towards the matter, social media is cancer, but compare and contrast narratives: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/harper-reed-obama-campaign-microtargeting/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/harper-reed-oba...

ballenf 9y ago
Are there differences to the approaches taken by Obama vs. Trump in terms of leveraging social media data? Did Obama do it in a more transparent way (is that even possible given the disconnect between the amount of data people give away vs. what they think is going on)?
- vanderZwan 9y ago
  Well, both try to reach an audience with their message, but one side is practically (if not literally) boasting that they are manipulating an deceiving their targets and using what they know about their prey against them.
- Cenk 9y ago
  Michael Simon (@mbsimon) who ran the microtargeting team for Obama in 08: >How dare you! We didn’t steal private Facebook profile data from voters under false pretenses. OFA voluntarily solicited opinions of hundreds of thousands of voters. We didn’t commit theft to do our groundbreaking work. There’s more in the thread: https://twitter.com/mbsimon/status/975231597183229953 https://twitter.com/mbsimon/status/975231597183229953
  - chvid 9y ago
    What did you expect them to say? “Don’t be so hard on CA. We had more people and much better data.”
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    I expect the fact that the OFA app was pulling friend data would be surprising to at least the friends. Which Facebook turned that feature off years ago. Of course, they turned that feature off so that people looking to obtain microtargetting services will need to buy them from Facebook. Which is funny. I've see some people talking about how the Clinton campaign relied on an in house data team for their Facebook work, and that the Trump campaign worked more closely with Facebook employees (the Facebook employees were on site at the campaign, working for free because the campaign was such a big customer).

pjc50 9y ago

Also: https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/976848641628491778 https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/976848641628491778 "Suspended Cambridge Analytica Chief Executive Alexander Nix has been recalled to the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee which claims there were "a number of inconsistencies" in evidence he gave to MPs last month"

GreeniFi 9y ago

I would say that most Brits I meet are good. But there is a certain kind, usually an Englishman, who is pure selfish evil. I’ve lived in a few countries where SCL/CA has been active, and its destabilizing propaganda resulted in death and turmoil. I think there are three drivers at play in the formation of these, “the worst kind of Englishmen”: 1. Boarding school syndrome, covered in this article for its role in Brexit. It renders its victims as lacking empathy. https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/boarding-schools-bad-leaders-politicians-bullies-bumblers https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/educatio... 2. A sort of Affluenza which has infected the British upper and upper middle classes. As the UK has become more and more expensive, the upper middle class lifestyle, involving private schools, a flat in London and a house in the country, have become out of reach, and it has induced a sort of elite desperation. 3. An English ‘exceptionalism’. Many Brits are somewhat parochial, and although they know very little of the outside world, seen through the eyes of empire in a very simplistic way (which many elites do), you can get this type of behavior taking place.

branchless 9y ago
The UK has had a few of these things now: 1. Lots of dirty USA bank business pre 2008 conducted through London which arguably hid the scale of the crisis building up, making it worse 2. Russian dirty money into London, which culminates in some Russians getting killed in the UK. Not easy to get the dirty money in without the dirty behaviour. 3. CLS/Cambridge Analytica - this has effected not only the UK (Brexit) but also USA elections. All three are directly linked to the UK establishment and the Conservative party and The City of London. How many chances will the rest of the developed world give the UK before deciding it's just not worth engaging? And this is before the coming collapse as the UK cannot raise interest rates, makes very little and is about to jettison itself from the EU.
khhh35575544 9y ago
Hey don't hold back, tell us what you really think! I wonder where you are from? Do you really think the Brits have a monopoly on villainry? Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Columbus etc., Armenia, Arab/Jewish slave trade, US disruption of elections worldwide since ever.. Is my point made?

DonaldFisk 9y ago

Undercover reporters investigate Cambridge Analytica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ The information commissioner is still waiting for her request for a search warrant, made on Monday, to be heard by a high court judge: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/22/cambridge-analytica-warrant-high-court-adjourns-hearing-information-commissioner?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Sync_Dev https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/22/cambridge-an... Meanwhile, crates with documents have been removed from the building: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/information-commissioner-cambridge-analytica_uk_5ab03488e4b0697dfe19a876 https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/information-commissio... Doesn't look good.

branchless 9y ago
The UK establishment are directly involved in CLS. Are you sure there will be a genuine investigation? UK Saudi arms inquiry was withheld because it didn't fit UK aims: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-terrorist-funding-report-saudia-arabia-focus-not-publish-conservatives-government-a7766381.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-... No prosecutions for 2008 banking collapse. I think it looks pretty good (for CLS).
- OrganicMSG 9y ago
  I think that the more the UK state covers for CLS, the worse the blowback could be. Every single country that CLS has been involved in will have an official starting an investigation and dusting off the extradition forms.
  - branchless 9y ago
    The ruling party has prominent people on the board / with shares! This is why you and I are not in the UK establishment. We are inhibited by shame and a fear of losing. When we step back they double down. Everything or nothing, no in between. It is their birthright.
    - 9y ago

OrganicMSG 9y ago

So, if this is all to be believed and we link it with what else is known, elements within the oldest of the Old Guard at the top of UK politics, alongside the Putin oligarchy and some US billionaires who align with the Dark Enlightenment orthodoxy, are deliberately destabilising the US political system, trying to break up the EU, while actively undermining hundreds of other democratic systems around the world. I really started to wonder what the hell was going on when right wingers started shouting the anti-globalist slogans of the late '90s left wing anarchist movement, as that clearly was an agenda that was unlikely to have organically transferred. A group of billionaires wanting to rule openly over balkanised microstates, in opposition to the globalising efforts of the liberal free marketeer billionaires, was one though that kept coming back to me. And look, here they all are.