In March 2018, Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that worked for the Trump campaign. Cambridge Analytica, the Canadian data scientist revealed, had illegally obtained the Facebook information of 87 million people and used it to build psychological profiles of voters. Using cutting-edge research, Cambridge Analytica — which was funded by the billionaire hedge-fund owner Robert Mercer, and effectively run by Steve Bannon from 2014 onward — spread narratives on social media aiming to ignite a culture war, suppress black voter turnout and exacerbate racist views held by some white voters. (Trump’s campaign staff have denied Cambridge Analytica played a major role in the campaign.)
Wylie’s revelations caused a temporary meltdown in Facebook’s market value and set governments around the world scrambling to more stringently regulate social media, data collection and political campaigning. But, 18 months later and as another U.S. Presidential Election approaches, Wylie says not enough has been done to prevent similar problems. In his new book, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, out Oct. 8, Wylie tells the story of his experience coming to realize how the enormous amount of data we now share about ourselves daily on social media could be combined, synthesized and eventually weaponized to shape our thoughts, feelings and even voting habits — all without us noticing.
Wylie spoke to TIME about the dangers of Facebook, his fears for 2020 and his best advice for would-be whistleblowers.
View the complete October 8 article by Billy Perrigo on The Time website here.