Chris Wylie and Shahmir Sanni to speak at emergency rally tonight
Cambridge Analytica and Vote Leave whistleblowers Chris Wylie and Shahmir Sanni will be speaking at an emergency demo intending to review the Brexit vote at 7pm tonight.
The rally, which will be hosted by The Fair Vote Project in Parliament Square, seeks to act as a rallying cry for MPs to address Cambridge Analytica’s work to manipulate the outcome of the Brexit vote.
“The Fair Vote Project is about bringing the evidence directly to people so they can decide for themselves whether it suggests cheating in the referendum then demand a fair vote on our future,” said Director of the movement, Kyle Taylor.
“Free and fair elections aren’t a political issue, they’re a fundamental British value – and they’re worth fighting for.”
The group have pressed for an urgent process to ensure that MPs have to address the issue before they go on recess.
Although Cambridge Analytica and Facebook denied the existence of a contract between them to carry out the data harvesting, the file published by Damian Collins as part of UK parliament’s fake news inquiry today proves it is in fact not the case.
Posters depicting Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix behind bars, with the slogan “Our Data Not His. Go Straight To Jail” are pictured at the entrance of the company’s offices in central London on March 20, 2018.
The European Parliament on Tuesday invited Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to speak following revelations that a firm working for Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign harvested data on 50 million users. Facebook has faced worldwide criticism over the claims that Cambridge Analytica, the UK data analysis firm hired by Trump’s 2016 campaign, harvested and misused data on 50 million members. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
Here is is. The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook contract. Denied by Facebook. Denied by Cambridge Analytica. Leaked by @chrisinsilico. And published today by @DamianCollins as part of UK parliament's fake news inquiry. pic.twitter.com/72wIOqLr6t
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 29, 2018
Shahmir and Chris have made a handful of appearances together to discuss the importance of democratic transparency since they shared their experiences with The Observer.
Shahmir broke down in tears during a talk at The Frontline Club when Theresa May’s press secretary Stephen Parkison outed him in Downing Street statement.
Recalling first seeing the statement on an obscure blog, he said: “People were tweeting about this blog [by Dominic Cummings, former Vote Leave boss]. I went through this blog, this 8000 word blog, and then I came across this statement… that’s when I started panicking.
“I thought, ‘it’s only Dominic Cummings’ blog, no-one reads that’, so I was mildly panicked. I never thought it would actually happen – I thought, they wouldn’t stoop that low.
“It was late in the evening that same day, when the New York Times called me and said, can you comment on this statement we’ve been sent by Number 10?
“I said, ‘what are you talking about?’ and they said, ‘allegations about you being in a relationship with Stephen Parkinson’.
“That’s when my heart dropped. I said, okay, fine. We asked the New York Times to forward the email, and it literally was from a Number 10 email with ‘Statement – official’ and ‘here’s the quote’.”
“It was f**king s**t. I came out to my mum the day before yesterday.”
He added: “I hate talking about it, because I get…”, before briefly becoming too distraught to continue speaking.
Fighting back tears, Mr Sanni continued: “He knew… he knew that I wasn’t out to my mum.”
The whistleblower added: “Sorry, I’m being a drama queen. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”
