Cambridge Analytica is an outgrowth of a British company, SCL Group, a behavioral research company that uses massive consumer databases to shape opinions for multiple purposes.

… SCL Group, which provides governments, political groups and companies around the world with services ranging from military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and voter targeting.

The micro-targeted information from Cambridge helped Ted Cruz win the Iowa caucuses, but when Trump became the nominee, Mercer put both his funds and his data firm behind efforts to promote Trump. Jared Kushner took the controls of Trump’s data operations, and used Cambridge Analytica to mimick what they did in other countries.

In Latvia, SCL said it ran a campaign in 2006 designed to stoke tensions between Latvians and ethnic Russian residents: “In essence, Russians were blamed for unemployment and other problems affecting the economy,” an SCL document said. Nix confirms the firm’s role, saying that its research found that such tensions would “influence voting behavior.”

Trump’s data team set out to replicate that success in the United States, opening up tensions along ethnic and racial lines to enforce the idea that the white middle class wasn’t getting a fair deal—a tactic remarkably similar to that used in the Russan propaganda efforts that have been revealed so far.

Cambridge’s parent company has proven itself uniquely “gifted” when it comes to using false statements and fake social movements to shift an election. And Mercer bought into this potential.

According to documents seen by Bloomberg, SCL says it helped a candidate in Trinidad by spraying graffiti slogans that appeared to be the work of young Trinidadians. “The client was then able to ‘adopt’ related policies and claim credit for listening to a ‘united youth,’ ” SCL documents show.

Companies like Cambridge Analytica and their parent, SCL, are engines that run on hate. They play up social, ethnic, and racial divides for the profit of their clients. Whether it’s planted news stories, created “social movements” or rumors spread through every means available, they’re the go-to company for generating discord … to win.

And they’ve bragged about how this “secret sauce” helped put Trump in office, and made some truly frightening claims about the depth of their knowledge and ability to manipulate.

Many companies compete in the market for political microtargeting, using huge data sets and sophisticated software to identify and persuade voters. But Mr. Nix’s little-known firm, Cambridge Analytica, claimed to have developed something unique: “psychographic” profiles that could predict the personality and hidden political leanings of every American adult.

Cambridge Analytica may have been little known outside conservative political circles until now, but that seems likely to change.