Will be live-tweeting my thoughts from @profcarroll's talk on #DarkData and Democracy at @TheNewSchool (starting now) 1/n
Description of talk is here: eventbrite.com/e/dark-data-an… 2/n
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently released a report "Democracy Disrupted?" on Cambridge Analytica (CA) and Facebook (FB): ico.org.uk/media/action-w… 3/n
A key finding of the report is that **inferred** data is legally equivalent to personal data when it is attached to an identity 4/n
This is an "earth-shattering decision that affects the entire advertising/marketing industry" 5/n
A co-signer to the original agreement between Kogan and Nix to create the technology behind CA was Joseph Chancellor; after CA was dissolved, Chancellor was hired by Facebook 6/n 
Facebook hasn't been forthright in answering questions. “It’s a key loose thread in the story…what is Facebook hiding behind Joseph Chancellor?” 7/n
CA trained psychometric models on data from 2016 Repub primaries when they worked for Ted Cruz’s campaign. They then transferred those *trained* models to their work on the Trump campaign. 8/n
A key legal question is whether transferring trained models is the same as transferring the data on which the models were trained. CA/Trump team claims that they "started from scratch". 9/n
Wow... the US State Dept hired SCL (the holding company for CA) to counter Islamist digital propaganda. "That's chilling to me. That the same company, same database could be used for both things [State Dept, Trump] at the same time." 10/n
The big question: how connected is SCL/CA to organized crime? 11/n
"The potential for democracy to be practiced algorithmically." 12/n
We're now switching to @WendySiegelman who will speak about "the inner workings of some of these companies" 13/n
"I am a citizen journalist, I'm not a reporter, I have a full-time job...I do this on weekends" 14/n
"One story that grabbed my attention from the beginning was about the server in Trump Tower that was communicating with Alfa Bank and Spectrum Health...the Steele dossier mentions Alfa bank" 15/n
Amazing chart of the relationships between the various players/companies surrounding Cambridge Analytica; made by citizen journos(!!) @annmarlowe and @WendySiegelman 16/n
The chart is no longer current. Most of the boxes should be grey (inactive). But three companies "keep popping up [with different names] like whack-a-mole" 17/n
Wow interesting company. Rebekah Mercer sits on the board and the Director Chun Shun Ko is biz partners with Erik Prince; he has since left but the new Director is a former co-worker/associate 18/n
“I noticed that all of the former Cambridge Analytica employees kept popping up in new companies. So I made a chart…" 19/n
Note all the companies associated with Brad Parscale (in the last chart). He is now running Trump's 2020 campaign. 20/n
Now switching to @justinhendrix to hear about future trends to "scare the hell out of [us]". 21/n
Plug for a (very interesting looking) initiative: techmediademocracy.nyc 22/n
#QAnon thinks that JP Morgan sank the Titanic. 24/n
"It is a highly-merchandized conspiracy theory." 25/n
"The reason I bring this up is if this were a media startup, you would be so proud of them…their social engagement is wild!” 26/n
"The Q phenomenon blurs the line between politics and news. Q often comments on the news…but it is also entertainment...I think this is interesting because it is a canary in the coal mine for where media is headed." 27/n
Another canary in the coal mine is @lilmiquela who is a fake composite avatar with 1.3M followers on Instagram. 28/n
Robert Murtfeld, former director of commercial sales at Cambridge Analytica, apparently entered the talk shortly after it started, sat in the back, then left before Q&A 29/n
@profcarroll recognized Murtfeld while he was speaking and announced it to everyone during Q&A: "that's your special treat...a close associate of Assange was here today... something weird always happens at these things." [END]
