OTTAWA—A B.C. firm connected to the Facebook data scandal defended their political work Tuesday, suggesting their high-tech campaign tools were no different than traditional electioneering techniques.Victoria-based AggregateIQ has been linked to Cambridge Analytica, the U.K.-based political consultants at the heart of the ongoing Facebook data scandal.But AggregateIQ chief operating officer Jeff Silvester downplayed his company’s services as simply a modern version of time-tested political campaigning. Silvester said AggregateIQ helps political campaigns design and place advertising campaigns, and develops tools to keep track of voter outreach efforts.“The ads that we show, it’s the digital equivalent of an ad on someone’s lawn or on a street corner,” Silvester told MPs on the House of Commons ethics committee Tuesday.“You choose where you want it to go, you put your message on there and people drive by and see it. And it’s the same for the internet and (the) same with going door-to-door and the same with making phone calls.”The committee began a second week of hearings into the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal on Tuesday. Cambridge Analytica is accused of purchasing the data of 87 million Facebook users, and selling their analysis of that data to help influence political campaigns in the U.S. and U.K. More than 600,000 Canadian Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica. Testifying before the U.K. parliament last month, whistleblower Christopher Wylie suggested AggregateIQ was closely tied to Cambridge Analytica. Wylie, a former colleague of Silvester’s, said he believed AggregateIQ had access to Cambridge Analytica databases while working for the Brexit’s Leave campaign in the U.K.AggregateIQ is also currently facing questions from authorities in the U.K. for their role in alleged campaign spending violations by the Leave campaign.Silvester told Canadian M ...
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