Netflix continue to smash it when it comes to their original documentaries – and The Great Hack, released globally on July 24, is no exception.



The feature-length documentary is a must-watch for anyone who has a Facebook profile, social media account, or any form of digital footprint. What's more, if you're in any way an active participant in the democratic process, whatever your alignment, it makes for sobering viewing.

If you've seen buzz around The Great Hack online (ironic) but not yet had a chance to watch it, you may have a few questions. What is Cambridge Analytica, who are Alexander Nix and Brittany Kaiser, and most importantly, what has this had to do with the election of President Trump and maybe the Brexit referendum in the UK?

Allow us to explain.

What is Cambridge Analytica?

Cambridge Analytica was an offshoot of the SCL Group.

Former Cambridge CEO Alexander Nix described it as a "data-driven communications company" during a sales presentation video that was included in the film.

The documentary lays out the ways in which Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook users, without their knowledge or consent, in order to categorise them so that they could offer clients knowledge of their audience as well as how best to reach them.

Cambridge Analytica worked on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and have previously denied involvement in the Leave.EU campaign despite, on other occasions, discussing it publicly. Clear? We hope not.

The Great Hack also lays out, in quite shocking detail, the level of influence that Cambridge Analytica's techniques have had in other political campaigns across the globe – including Argentina (2015), Trinidad and Tobago (2009), Thailand (1997), India (2010), Malaysia (2013), Italy (2012) Kenya (2013) and Colombia (2011) to name a few that were listed in the documentary.

The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago denies working with Cambridge Analytica – this, according to the documentary, is currently being investigated.

Cambridge Analytica went into liquidation in 2o18 but the moral, and possible legal, implications continue to be investigated.

Alexander Nix

Netflix

Julian Wheatland – former COO/CFL of the Cambridge Analytica/SCL Group – was interviewed for the Netflix film. He described the company as an "environment of great innovation."

He said that Cambridge Analytica's CEO Alexander Nix was "very focused on building a strong elections business". Citing the 2008 Obama election campaign, he said it very successfully used data and digital campaigns, and created that "market opportunity" to "provide a service to Republican politics in the US".

Netflix

The Ted Cruz campaign in Iowa, which saw him rise from being the lowest rated candidate in the primaries to the last man standing before Trump's nomination, was attributed to "psychological data and analytics" (via the Washington Post) and Cambridge Analytica used this as "positive proof" of their methodology.

Having collected vast amounts of voter data and research, they joined the Trump campaign – which, as we all now know, was successful.

The company claimed to have 5000 data points on every American and could use this to predict the personality of every adult in the United States. "It's personality that drives behaviour, and behaviour obviously influences how you vote," said Nix in archival video footage.

This information was then fed into highly targeted video content online – more on that later.

Nix declined involvement in The Great Hack – but in a statement included at the end of the film, he claimed he had legally licensed the Facebook data they used, and that Cambridge Analytica had only delivered "a proposal for work" to Leave.EU. He also denied liquidating the company to evade legal responsibilities.

Christopher Wylie

Netflix

Wylie was a data scientist who helped to set up Cambridge Analytica but he is now known as a whistleblower who spoke out against his former employers. In the film it is clear that he regards CA as a "full service propaganda machine", claiming that the company was Steve Bannon's "weapon" to remould society.



Bannon is the former executive chairman of Breitbart News and former White House Chief Strategist for the Trump administration.

Wylie enlisted the help of Aleksandr Kogan, also known as 'Dr Spectre', to find a way to harvest data. Kogan developed an app that would collect data from millions of Facebook users via a 'personality test'.

"If you were a friend of somebody who used the app, you'd have no idea that I just pulled all your data," Wylie explained. This extended to status updates, likes and even private messages. This was used to build psychological profiles for the population in the United States.

In footage used in The Great Hack, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated that his top priority has always been his "social mission", but he admitted that "it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well."

Zuckerberg said that he believed Cambridge Analytica had deleted the data and that he didn't know whether Facebook employees were involved.

Brittany Kaiser

Netflix

Another whistleblower who was one of the key players in Cambridge Analytica, Kaiser has since cooperated with investigators and provided evidence that has helped lift the lid on what went on.

Discussing the personality tests that Wylie described, Kaiser explained that they "didn't target every American voter equally."

"The bulk of our resources went into targeting those whose minds we thought we could change. We called them the 'persuadables'," she said. They focused even more on the people in swing states, and could therefore impact the overall result.

Their creative team designed "personalised content" to "trigger those individuals", Kaiser added. "We bombarded them through blogs, websites, articles, videos, ads, every platform you can imagine. Until they saw the world the way we wanted them to… Until they voted for our candidate."



As these words played out during The Great Hack, imagery of anti-Clinton propaganda and terrorism threats could be seen on-screen. This "targeted messaging" was designed to change voters' behaviour.

The conclusion of The Great Hack is a heavy one. In this new digitally-led world, it seems that Pandora's Box has now been opened.

The technology, rightly or wrongly, exists to manipulate voters without their realising it – so where does that leave our democratic processes?

The Great Hack is available to stream now.

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