Instead of a traditional field campaign, Trump's team paid $5 million to a British owned company known for "military disinformation campaigns" that use "behavioral research," "disinformation" and “Psy-Ops" to "modify behavior" and "manipulate public opinion and political will." It's the same company that worked on Brexit and the claims on their own website are disturbing but their Wikipedia page is frightening:
SCL (Strategic Communication Laboratories) Group is a private British behavioral research and strategic communication company. SCL is known as Cambridge Analytica in the United States.[1] It performs data mining and data analysis on its audience. Based on results, communications will be specifically targeted to key audience groups to modify behavior in accordance with the goal of SCL's client. The company describes itself as a "global election management agency"
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After an initial commercial success, SCL expanded into military and political arenas. It became known for involvement "in military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and voter targeting"
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SLC’s involvement in the political world has been primarily in the developing world where it has been used by the military and politicians to study and manipulate public opinion and political will. It uses what have been called “psy ops” to provide insight into the thinking of the target audience.[4] SCL claims to have been successful to help foment coups.[5] According to its website, SCL has influenced elections in Italy, Latvia, Ukraine, Albania, Romania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Colombia, Antigua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago. Wikipedia: SCL Group / Cambridge Analytica
This Forbes article touches on Cambridge Analytica's (SCL Group) involvement in Trump's campaign.
[Kushner] hired targeting partners like Cambridge Analytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most: trade, immigration or change.
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Jared Kushner is the biggest surprise of the 2016 election," adds Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who helped design the Clinton campaign's technology system. "Best I can tell, he actually ran the campaign and did it with essentially no resources.
Forbes: Exclusive Interview: How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House
So how did Trump lose a large swing county like Fairfax County, Virginia by 36% and the popular vote by 2.7 million but win blue states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan with essentially no resources? Is it possible Cambridge Analytica identified the people and regions most susceptible to lies, fake news, conspiracy theories and disinformation? Remember this? What this guy talks about is exactly what happened in key swing states.
Also, how many conflicts of interest can you spot in this article below?
Cambridge Analytica is backed by [billionaire] Robert Mercer, whose daughter is on the Trump transition team, while Trump's soon-to-be chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is on the board... The data company that helped push Donald Trump to victory is now hoping it will win two lucrative contracts to boost White House policy messaging and to expand sales for the Trump Organization.
Steve Bannon’s data firm in talks for lucrative White House contracts
This all seems like more than an enormous problem to me? Please talk me off the ledge...