Academic at centre of Facebook row says the data is greatly exaggerated

Facebook has been rocked this week by a whistleblower who said that Cambridge Analytica had improperly accessed information on millions of Facebook users to build detailed profiles on American voters

The consultancy at the centre of a storm over Facebook data greatly exaggerated its role in Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential victory and would not have been able to sway an election result, the academic who provided the data said.

Psychologist Aleksandr Kogan also told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that he was being made a scapegoat by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, a British-based company hired by Trump for his election campaign.

Facebook has been rocked this week by a whistleblower who said that Cambridge Analytica had improperly accessed information on millions of Facebook users to build detailed profiles