Apr 7, 2018
Facebook suspends AIQ data firm used by Vote Leave in Brexit campaign
Facebook has suspended a Canadian data firm that played a key role in the campaign for the UK to leave the EU. The social media giant cites reported links with Cambridge Analytica, the consultancy accused of improperly accessing the data of millions. An ex-volunteer with the campaign has also claimed Vote Leave donated £625,000 to another group to get around campaign spending limits, with most of the money going to AIQ. Vote Leave has denied any wrongdoing. Now Facebook's decision throws the spotlight back onto the potential use of Facebook data during the Brexit campaign. Facebook says it is looking into whether the data that Cambridge Analytica acquired improperly from as many as 87 million people - 1 million of them in the UK - ended up with Aggregate IQ. The firm worked for both Vote Leave and BeLeave during the EU referendum campaign, but has always insisted it has never been a part of Cambridge Analytica, and has not had access to any of its Facebook data. Cambridge Analytica is at the centre of a row over whether it used the personal data of millions of Facebook users to sway the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum.
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