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A top American senator has sought an investigation into potential violations of federal election law by Cambridge Analytica (CA), the scandal-hit communications firm at the heart of the Facebook data scandal.
Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a founding employee of CA, has accused that the firm, hired by Donald Trump during his primary campaign, illegally mined tens of millions of users' Facebook data and then used it to target potential voters.
In a letter to the FEC, Senator Richard Blumenthal said that Wylie's disclosures have raised significant issues that warrant the attention of the FEC pertaining to the involvement of foreign nationals and political action committees in the management of election campaigns.
"I urge the FEC to take these allegations seriously, open an investigation into possible violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by Cambridge Analytica and its clients, and take enforcement action as necessary," Blumenthal wrote.
In an exclusive report, 'The Washington Post' said that CA employed dozens of non-US citizens in its political strategy and communications work for state campaigns, Congressional candidates, and political action committees working in the US.
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CA was founded as an American subsidiary of the British consulting firm Strategic Communication Laboratories ("the SCL Group") by the director of its elections division, Alexander Nix.
Despite presenting CA as an American face for the SCL Group, media reports indicate that its leadership and employees were mostly foreign nationals working on tourist visas with the company providing potentially misleading letters to help with entry into the country, the lawmaker wrote.
Blumenthal said that millions of dollars in payments from political action committees were made to CA at the same time that the firm was directly employed by three presidential campaigns and multiple Congressional campaigns.
In the 2014 mid-term and 2016 presidential elections, CA played a direct role in managing strategy and communications for Republican campaigns across state and federal offices while working for conservative political action committees (PACs) supporting those same candidates, it said.
According to the New York Times, one of CA's most lucrative clients has been former Ambassador John Bolton's PAC, "John Bolton Super PAC", which has spent nearly USD 1.2 million on its services since 2014. Bolton has now been appointed as National Security Advisor to the US president.
The firm was reportedly contracted by Boltons PAC to perform "behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging", designing and targeting online and television advertisements, Blumenthal said.
"The company provided these services at the same time as working directly for the same candidates and state parties. Additionally, Cambridge Analytica's foreign staff was closely involved in the strategy and communications of the Bolton PAC with the firm reportedly writing talking points for Mr. Bolton," he wrote.
Meanwhile, Senator Jerry Moran sought an explanation regarding how the personal data of 50 million Facebook users was transmitted to Cambridge Analytica without users' consent and how that information was used.
In light of reports that Cambridge Analytica mined information from 50 million Facebook users and irrefutable evidence that Russia used the social media site to spread disinformation, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress.
"For too long, Facebook has operated like the wild west, which has made the site vulnerable to abuse by organisations like Cambridge Analytica and allowed Russia to weaponise information," she said.
"Like millions of Americans, I use Facebook to connect with my community, but its clear this tool has been exploited to spread disinformation and propaganda," said Pingree.
"I am encouraged to hear Mark Zuckerberg say he is open to increased regulatory oversight of Facebook, but he needs to testify before Congress and detail how he plans to safeguard his website from cyberattacks and protect user data," the lawmaker said.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been forced to issue a statement outlining his firm's role in the scandal and apologised last Wednesday to its billions of users for the breach.
The company has seen its stock market value plunge by around USD 75 million since March 16, when Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been improperly channelled to Cambridge Analytica.
