2018-03-19
Monday, 19 March 2018
Australian Greens Digital Rights spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has expressed alarm about the ‘Trumpification’ of Australian elections, following revelations today about the extent of data harvesting carried out by Cambridge Analytica and its potential influence on the Trump and Brexit campaigns.
Senator Steele-John said there were significant questions to be answered about where and how the data used in these campaigns was obtained, and whether it was legal to do so.
“The exploitation of private data from sites like Facebook and other online mediums is clearly not ethical, and threatens the very fabric of our democracy.
“The Liberal Party has invested heavily in the i360 data analytics system and has admitted to employing their assistance in last weekend’s South Australian election; supposedly the first in Australia where these data strategies were used.
“It is absolutely astounding to me that the Liberal Party has not only been using these techniques, but has openly admitted to doing so! i360 is a data analytics company owned by the Koch Brothers and also suspected of using questionable data harvesting techniques.
“This raises much broader concerns about the integrity of future elections in Australia, and I would urge the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to consider whether this kind of data harvesting and its use in Australian Elections can be investigated.”
Media Contact:
Tim Oliver - 0448 316 387
Media Release Digital Rights & I.T.