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Washington Post Blogs
March 21, 2018 Wednesday 1:18 AM EST
How Cambridge Analytica poisoned Kenya's democracy;
This is data neocolonialism, the same foreign interference that Uhuru
Kenyatta pretended to be against.
BYLINE: Larry Madowo
Larry Madowo is a Kenyan broadcast journalist and writer. He tweets at
@LarryMadowo.
No one company should have the power to manipulate the psychology of an
entire country. We now know that Cambridge Analytica has done just that
- not just in the United States, but also in the fragile political
systems of the global south.
The company mined Kenyan voters' data to help President Uhuru Kenyatta
win disputed elections. Over two presidential election cycles, it
presided over some of the darkest and most vicious campaigns Kenya has
ever seen. Cambridge Analytica confirmed its involvement to an
undercover reporter for Britain's Channel 4, which released an exposé on
Monday. Executives were taped saying that they ran "just about every
element" of Kenyatta's campaign in 2013 and 2017, including rebranding
his party twice, and writing the campaign's manifesto and speeches. The
firm also did "two rounds of 50,000 surveys."
In Kenya, Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto breathlessly carped about
Western imperialism and neocolonialism while reportedly paying a Western
firm millions of dollars to get them elected. The rich irony of this
shameless doublespeak aside, there are still many unanswered questions
about how far Cambridge Analytica's work went and what ethical
boundaries were breached.
What we know is that Cambridge Analytica helped hijack Kenya's
democracy. It manipulated voters with apocalyptic attack ads and smeared
Kenyatta's opponent Raila Odinga as violent, corrupt and dangerous. The
two rivals might have since reconciled with a famous handshake, but that
cannot erase the fact that innocent lives were lost because of a
divisive campaign or that tribal rifts were opened with long-lasting
effects. It is infuriating to hear the company's embattled and
now-suspended CEO, Alexander Nix, flippantly admit that things "don't
necessarily need to be true as long as they are believed." This is data
neocolonialism, the same foreign interference Kenyatta pretended to be
against.
According to the New York Times, Cambridge Analytica experimented
abroad, including in the Caribbean and Africa, where "privacy rules are
lax or nonexistent." Politicians employing its parent company, SCL
Group, were "happy to provide government-held data, according to former
employees." Cambridge Analytica proudly touts case studies in Thailand,
South Africa, India, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago on its website.
A Cambridge Analytica employee said in the Channel 4 exposé that it has
also worked in Mexico and Malaysia and was expanding to Brazil and China.
In these developing countries, there has been no word about sanctions or
even a demand for answers from Cambridge Analytica. Besides, those who
are supposed to penalize the offending companies would likely have the
privilege of being the direct beneficiaries of its nefarious operations.
Facebook, Twitter, Google and other technology companies that facilitate
or amplify work by outfits such as Cambridge Analytica are complicit in
poisoning democracies around the world. In Sri Lanka, Facebook has been
accused of fanning hate speech that led to anti-Muslim riots, forcing
the country to ban social media after protests left at least two people
dead. U.N. officials investigating claims of genocide in Burma, also
known as Myanmar, say Facebook was used to spread vitriol against
Rohingya Muslims. A political battle in Cambodia between a leading
opposition figure and the country's authoritarian prime minister over
accusations of counterfeit "likes" on Facebook pages has spilled into a
U.S. court. The Somalia-based terrorist group Al-Shabab live-tweeted its
attack of the Westgate mall in Nairobi in 2013, leaving Twitter
embarrassed and family members in anguish.
While Cambridge Analytica may face sanctions on both sides of the
Atlantic, it will likely still get away with mischief and dangerous mind
games in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Regulators in those countries must step up to hold companies like this
accountable or kick them out completely.
Kenyans must demand transparency and a full investigation. Sadly though,
it is hard to imagine that Cambridge Analytica will ever be unwelcome
here, when it helped elect the president twice.
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