Cambridge Analytica CEO Suspended, and the FTC Probes Facebook
Cambridge Analytica suspended its CEO Alexander Nix Tuesday after an undercover recording showed him bragging about illegally influencing political campaigns.
The firm was already under fire for its role in the Facebook data scandal. Many of that company’s top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have stayed silent the last few days and even skipped out on a company-wide meeting Tuesday.
These two strands together indicate potential turmoil at the top of both companies, according to Jesse Byrnes, Associate Editor of The Hill.
“I think we’re seeing the gravity of the issue playing out now,” he told Cheddar. “We’re seeing lawmakers...calling for the top executives to make public appearances and to be answering questions.”
Late last week, news broke that data company Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook to collect data on millions of Americans without their permission. It then used that information to create personality profiles which were allegedly passed on to President Donald Trump’s campaign team before the 2016 election.
Its transgressions may have surpassed that -- in a video from Britain’s Channel 4 news, Nix talked about entrapping politicians with sex workers and his willingness to take bribes. The exec further boasted about the company’s role in electing Trump.
Also on Tuesday, Facebook came into the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission, which launched a probe into how the social media company used data from Cambridge.
“[They’re] going to be interested to see if Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica to access this information and...whether they were at least knowledgeable about this,” said Byrnes.
Facebook said in a statement that in 2015 it asked Cambridge Analytica to delete all the data it had collected. It denied it knew Cambridge ignored that request and so suspended the company from its platform.
Not only does this controversy add to questions about Facebook’s privacy and data protection policies, it’s also given rise to the #DeleteFacebook campaign, which some say could eventually gain traction.
“I think people are going to reach a moment where the straw kind of breaks the camel’s back,” said Damon Beres, Executive Editor at Mashable. “We’ve been hearing so much about all these bad things that are happening because of Facebook...I would not be surprised if eventually people say enough is enough.”
Investors may be nearing that breaking point too. Facebook’s stock continued its downward trajectory on Tuesday, slipping another 2.5 percent after Monday’s near seven percent drop.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-under-fire-what-the-u-s-could-learn-from-the-eu).
State and county taxpayers will be asked to commit a record $850 million in public funds toward construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium as part of a 30-year lease agreement.
As the war enters its second month, Russia may be changing course on its strategy in Ukraine. After suffering heavy losses, forces around the capital city of Kyiv appear to have stopped offensive operations and are now shifting their focus to taking over the south and east of the country. Terrell Starr, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, breaks down the latest from Kyiv. "Logistically this war has been a disaster. They have far more troops than [the] Ukrainian army has. What they don't have is good planning. The planning has been incredibly poor," he said.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 28, 2022, with peace talks resuming in Ukraine as early as today, Colorado wildfires causing evacuations, Shanghai, China, ramping up restrictions once again, the Oscars debacle between Will Smith and Chris Rock, and more.
Volatility continues to be the name of the game when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital token, saw a small jump today - one of several small rallies throughout the month of March. Caitlin Cook, vice president of crypto education company Onramp Academy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As of March 2022, almost 200 Anti-LGBT+ bills have been introduced in state governments across the country — especially directed at the transgender community. Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley joined Cheddar News to discuss the deluge of legislation. "Unfortunately we are seeing these bills come at transgender youth from every conceivable direction," she said. "Every support that a trans kid has, whether that's their parents, whether that's their family, whether that's their teachers or their guidance counselors or their coaches, whether it's their teammates or the librarians and the books that they read, whether it's curriculum, whether it's even just the ability to acknowledge that LGBTQ people have existed throughout history and are important in the fabric of modern American society. The bills that we are seeing filed across the country are targeting all of those pieces."
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week seemed to have put out a video that urged Ukrainians to put down their arms and surrender to Russia. It was later revealed that it was a “deepfake,” a computer-generated video to mimic the Ukrainian leader. Cheddar News speaks with security expert Morgan Wright about how the technology is being used in the war in Ukraine.
