The Cambridge Analytica scandal blew up in March 2018 after Wylie came forward, revealing that the company had accessed the data of millions of Facebook users to target them for political campaigns. Facebook later reported that data of over 87 million users was harvested.



Of the 87 million, 70.6 million users were from the United States, with the Philippines coming in second at 1.2 million users.



In an interview with Rappler's Maria Ressa on the sidelines of the Antidote Festival in Sydney, Australia, Wylie said Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, already had roots in the Philippines even before the scandal broke.



“And SCL Group, even before I joined, had a relatively long history working in Filipino politics. And even whilst I was working at Cambridge Analytica – staff from the company would go and visit the Philippines.”

