Thread by @DrDenaGrayson

🇬🇧BREXIT🇬🇧

THREAD: Cambridge Analytica appears to have used a Canadian company, AggregateIQ #AIQ, to cheat UK election laws to steal the #Brexit vote‼️ 1/

theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m…

Vote Leave was the *official* #Brexit campaign, run by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.🤔

Right before the election, Vote Leave donated a total of £675,315 in 4 donations over 8 days to BeLeave, a political org set up by two 21-something yo’s who worked for Vote Leave.🤨 2/

Quick digression on UK campaign finance law before adding to the story.🤓

The SPENDING limit for Vote Leave (official campaign group) was £7m. Separate campaigns (such as BeLeave) could spend up to £700,000 each, but CANNOT coordinate or “work together”.🤨 3/

Back to Cambridge Analytica (CA), yet again a central player in a SHADY political plot.🙄

Chris Wylie from SCL/CA co-founded AggregateIQ (#AIQ), a tiny Canadian company that built CA’s technology platform & managed their databases🤔 4/

CA *owns* all of #AIQ “intellectual property,” which in the tech biz, basically means that CA = AIQ. (This is important later, when we loop this back into UK election laws.😉) 5/

Wylie says that #AIQ *connected CA’s algorithms to social & online advertising networks*.🤬

In 2015-16, almost all of AIQ’s work came via CA (who OWNS them)👉🏼worked closely w/Steve Bannon on multiple US campaigns. “Bannon was always interested in #Brexit,” says Wylie.🤨 6/

During #Brexit, AIQ received a total of £3.9m of campaign funds from 4 pro-leave groups, even though these groups were *supposedly separate* and could only “work together” if they shared the total spending limit of of £7m.🤔 7/

1️⃣Vote Leave spent £2,697,000 w/#AIQ
2️⃣Vote Leave gave BeLeave nearly £700k👉🏼spent £600k w/AIG
3️⃣VoteLeave gave £100k to Veterans for Britain👉🏼paid to AIQ
4️⃣ Democratic Unionist party (DUP) paid AIQ £32,750

8/

AIQ connected CA’s algorithm to social media/online ads👉🏼central role in the data-driven microtargeting of “persuadables” in the final days of the #Brexit campaign.🤔 9/

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Weirdly, these *supposedly separate* 4 pro-#Brexit groups mysteriously & “independently” used #AIQ, the SAME tiny data analytics firm, located on an island in west Canada.🙄

AIQ handled the MICROTARGETING for *all 4* firms👉🏼*illegal* COORDINATION.🤨10/

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It’s *very* difficult to imagine how these 4 pro-#Brexit campaigns are separate, if #AIQ worked for ALL of them.🙄

Vote Leave’ *had hit* its £7m spending limit👉🏼set up BeLeave to funnel £1m donated LATE in the campaign to Vote Leave👉🏼paid AIQ.🤨 11/

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SUMMARY: 3 “unofficial” pro-#Brexit groups used the same #AIQ (owned by CA), as did the “official” Vote Leave campaign group👉🏼MAXED out its legally allowed £7m spend.🤨

NO additional spending allowed, if unofficial groups coordinated‼️ 12/

#Busted

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Vote Leave and BeLeave (founded by Vote Leave workers & bankrolled by Vote Leave) both claim that they found #AIQ “on the internet.” But online archives show that AIQ’s website didn’t show up in Google searches until *AFTER* the #Brexit referendum‼️

#Coordination
#Busted

13/

The difference in the final #Brexit vote tally was only 600,000 people (just over 1% of total votes).🤨

Vote Leave‘s website praised #AIQ pivotal role in #Brexit: “We couldn’t have done it without them.”👈🏼Vote Leave removed this comment from its site this week.🙄

#Busted

14/

In the final weeks of the #Brexit campaign Vote Leave ramped up its spending, bombarding the small sliver of people it had identified as “persuadable” w/every kind of online ad. And #AIQ helped w/microtargeting for Vote Leave and the 3 *supposedly separate* pro-leave groups.🙄15/

Last night, UK authorities raided Cambridge Analytica’s London office and search for SEVEN hours.🤗

The search warrant covered *database and servers*‼️😎

16/

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Looks like it’s Cambridge Analytica’s time in the barrel for their work in BOTH the #Brexit and Trump campaigns‼️

Notably, Putin’s #Russia🇷🇺favored these campaigns.

And Cambridge Analytica has major links w/Russia.🙄

NOT COINCIDENCE‼️

/end