美国国家公共电台 NPR What Did Cambridge Analytica Do During The 2016 Election?

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Donald Trump¹'s presidential campaign paid millions of dollars to Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election. So did Texas Senator Ted² Cruz's campaign. Following reports that the company improperly³ collected data on 50 million Facebook users, both campaigns are downplaying the value of the information provided. NPR's Scott Detrow reports.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE⁴: Secretly recorded by Great Britain's Channel 4, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix sounded very nefarious⁵ talking about how his company works.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ALEXANDER NIX: We're used to operating through different vehicles in the shadows.

DETROW: When he spoke⁶ to NPR in the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign, Nix put a much more positive spin on his work.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NIX: We're appealing to the same demographic on the same issue, yet how we nuance⁷ this engagement is completely different.

DETROW: Nix was explaining one of Cambridge Analytica's most high-profile and controversial efforts - an attempt to group every American voter into different psychological personality profiles so that campaigns could specifically tailor their messages in different ways. In order to gain insight into voters' personality types, Cambridge Analytica paid an outside researcher to develop an app that offered users a detailed⁸ personality quiz. Here's how Nix described those surveys to NPR back in 2016.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NIX: A 120-question survey that seeks to probe personality, and we've rolled this out to literally⁹ hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people across America.

DETROW: At the time, Nix told NPR that Cambridge Analytica took those survey results and paired the data up with other information it had collected about voters, things like voting history, purchase history, online activity and data from social media profiles. Nix said the goal was to figure out the habits and political views of different personality types so campaigns could communicate with different voters in different ways.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NIX: If I've talked to enough people who look like you in terms of what data they have, I'd be able to quantify your personality based on the discussions I've had with other people.

DETROW: This week, The New York Times reported that Cambridge Analytica collected a lot of this information by breaking Facebook's rules. Because Facebook users logged into the app through their Facebook account, it collected details from their profiles. And Facebook's rules at the time allowed the app to suck up information about all those users' friends. That included education, location, the groups and pages they liked, their relationship status and where they worked.

The researcher who created the app was allowed to collect all this information. What he was not allowed to do was pass the information along to a third party instead of using it for research as had been promised. Facebook has now suspended Cambridge Analytica and the Cambridge researcher from the platform. But it's worth pointing out that scores of companies and campaigns are collecting similar information. University of North Carolina associate professor Daniel Kreiss says President Obama's 2012 campaign tapped into Facebook networks, too.

DANIEL KREISS: They were able to get data, supporters' social networks through a Facebook app in order to be reaching out to supporters to get them to talk to their friends in key states about supporting Obama and trying to get them to turn out to vote.

DETROW: Kreiss has written multiple books about the increasingly important role that data collection and large-scale voter targeting plays in politics. He says Facebook still hasn't figured out how to treat political advertising¹⁰ differently than commercial advertising.

KREISS: We're talking about the potential for actors to utilize¹¹ that data in a way that goes against Facebook's own platform to potentially sway an election or at the very least have an impact on democratic outcomes.

DETROW: Let's get back to Cambridge Analytica's main goal, building psychological profiles of American voters. In 2016, the Cruz campaign used the approach, dividing voters into six different categories. But ultimately the campaign did not find the approach valuable. It stopped the personality profiling after the South Carolina primary. And according to a source close to the operation, President Trump's general election campaign never did any psychological profiling of voters. Because Trump had avoided spending money on staff during the primaries, Cambridge Analytica staffers had to focus on much more basic tasks like fundraising and voter turnout. Scott Detrow, NPR News.

MARTIN: This afternoon, the board of Cambridge Analytica said company CEO Alexander Nix had been suspended pending¹² an investigation¹³. In a statement, the board said the allegations surrounding Nix do not represent the values or operations of the firm.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

3 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 nefarious   

adj.恶毒的，极坏的

参考例句：

• My father believes you all have a nefarious purpose here.我父亲认为你们都有邪恶的目的。
• He was universally feared because of his many nefarious deeds.因为他干了许多罪恶的勾当，所以人人都惧怕他。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

11 utilize   

vt.使用，利用

参考例句：

• The cook will utilize the leftover ham bone to make soup.厨师要用吃剩的猪腿骨做汤。
• You must utilize all available resources.你必须利用一切可以得到的资源。

12 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。