Daily Times

Mention of the West brings a particular image to the mind of common citizens of developing countries. We imagine it is a place where there is rule of law, respect for human rights, and where knowledge and civility go hand in hand. The latest scandal coming out of the mega data company Cambridge Analytica, punctures some of these myths. There is veneer of the rule of law; yet white-collar criminality is allowed, and even perpetuated.

Cambridge Analytica made ‘psychographic profiles’ of 50 million Facebook users, which were used to influence the 2016US presidential election. It also played a role in influencing the ‘Leave’ campaign vote during Brexit in Britain. It has also influenced elections in other parts of the world. This misuse of personal information gathered via Facebook is illegal. The fact that it has been used to influence and nudge voter’s behaviour in a certain way by targeting the specially tailored packages to Facebook users on the basis of their specific traits as calculated by algorithms is downright manipulation beyond the annals of law.

These ‘psychographic profiles’ used by Cambridge Analytica, according to the New Yorker could ‘judge’ voter’s personalities better than their own friends.” Christopher Wylie, the mind behind data mining has turned into a whistle-blower. Cambridge Analytica also used a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, Aleksandr Kogan, who developed a quiz that gathered data of millions of Facebook users without their consent. The unholy alliance between universities, such as the University of Cambridge and the industry is increasingly on the rise, particularly in the backdrop of government funding cuts for the universities.

Steve Bannon, the chief strategist for the Trump campaign was closely associated with the birth of Cambridge Analytica. A number of experts have commented that Facebook is a big surveillance set-up and it mines users’ data to remain in the business. Like Cambridge Analytica, its’ predecessor Strategic Communication Limited (SCL) Group was involved in cyber warfare for the elections. It had close links with both the British Ministry of Defence and the American defence establishment.

Our establishment’s methods are so blatant and brazen that it makes it easy to call them out. In the West, however, the cosy nexus of defence and intelligence communities with private contractors, has not been recognised by Western citizens

The Guardian article notes that these ‘psychological operations or psyops’ consisted of efforts to change “people’s minds, not through persuasion but through ‘informational dominance’, a set of techniques that includes rumours, disinformation and fake news.” Alexander Nix, the CEO of first SCL Elections and then Cambridge Analytica, stated in the leaked Channel Four undercover video recording that they could use sex workers to compromise politicians and make unauthorised video recording of persons of interest by offering them bribes and then leaking those videos into the internet’s ‘informational ecosystems’. These are techniques that are not fit for use by a mega data company; these are generally intelligence agencies’ techniques. It is possible to gather from the news coming out of Cambridge Analytica that trans-Atlantic defence establishments and intelligence communities have likely contracted their dirty cyber and informational warfare tactics to private companies like CA. The Guardian article further notes that when Wylie joined the operation, “he had no clue that he was walking into the middle of a nexus of defence and intelligence projects, private contractors and cutting-edge cyber weaponry.”

On the other hand, the Saudi Crown Prince has been given a red carpet welcome both in Britain and the US. Even the British Queen invited the Saudi Crown Prince for a meeting. Saudi Arabia is involved in a war with Yemen, duly supported by American and British weapons. So far, the war has killed an estimated 10,000 Yemenis. Yet, both the UK and US make pledges to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia. No word about human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, no condemnation of its attack on dissidents and torture of detainees, and no account of the brutal war that is killing civilians in Yemen through bombing and famine. Clearly, the UK and the US practice what is called as ‘mercantile shamelessness.’

So far in Pakistan, we still have the freedom to call out the transgressions of our establishment. Our voice may or may not make a difference — but we can still complain. Our establishment’s methods are so blatant and brazen that it makes it easy to call them out. In the West however, the cosy nexus of defence and intelligence communities with private contractors, has not been recognised by Western citizens. It is this hiding behind the plausible deniability that perpetuates white-collar criminality in the West and makes an open mockery of rule of law there.

The writer has a social science background and can be reached on Twitter @FoqiaKhan

Published in Daily Times, March 29^th 2018.