Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Says JD(U) Was a Client Too, Parties Used Firm for Caste Research

New Delhi: Christopher Wylie, the former employee of Cambridge Analytica who blew the lid off the Facebook data scandal, revealed on Wednesday that Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) had employed the services of the data firm’s parent company, SCL group, for the 2010 Assembly elections.

Taking to Twitter to bring forth details of the organization’s activities over the last few years in India, he categorically named JD(U) as one party that had worked with SCL Group. He claimed that SCL was asked to provide electoral research and strategy for the assembly elections.

“SCL undertook a behavioural research programme targeting over 75% of households to assist the client in not only identifying the correct battlegrounds, but also the right audiences, messages and most importantly the right castes to target with their campaigns,” the chart attached by him stated.

This comes just a day after he told British lawmakers that Cambridge Analytica had worked extensively in India and that Congress was one of the clients.

"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," Wylie tweeted, along with details of the ‘colonialism.’

The document put forth by Wylie states that since 2003, CA, which has been accused of illegally using data from Facebook, worked with several parties across states.

The document also states that the firm conducted a caste research for a major political party in Uttar Pradesh, in 2011 and in 2012 too. In 2013, it further states that it conducted research to analyse a party’s organizational strength and also to see the attitude of politically active individuals within the state.

The tweet comes a day after Wylie testified before the UK Parliament and gave further details of CA’s functioning, including their operations in India.

“I believe their client was Congress (in India) but I know that they have done all kinds of projects, both regional – I don’t remember a national project but I know regionally,” he had said, adding, ““India is so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there.”