In a shocking revelation, it has been learnt that SCL group has been operating in India for more than a decade now having data of 7 lakh villages.
A day after Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie named Congress as the company’s possible client in India, he has divulged some more details regarding company’s operations in India.
Wylie took it to Twitter to reveal some more details about Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL group. In his tweet, Wylie said he has been getting requests from Indian journalists to reveal more about SCL’s projects in India.
Wylie shared images of SCL’s India operations on his twitter. Surprisingly, the operations of SCL in India date back to 2003 Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It means that the company is operational in India for more than 10 years now.
I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question – yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z
— Christopher Wylie ️ (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018
According to the image which seems a screenshot of SCL’s national experience webpage, the company has a database of whopping 600 districts and 7 lakh villages. It also boasts of harvesting data related to household demographics, “ especially focused on caste data”. The company also claims to identify and target the key groups in the entire population to “influence their behaviour” so as to give the desired outcome to the client.
In India, it claims to have worked on as many as eight political projects in India. The company conducted political surveys in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 and 2011 and also played a big role in 2009 General Elections. Apart from that it also worked in Bihar state assembly election in 2010 in which it helped JD(U), Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly elections. In 2007 it conducted helped its client to get data from six states during the project that focused on a trans-national program of countering Non-desirable Behaviour of recruitment into and support of violent jihadism.
While it clearly names JD(U) as its clients, it does not mention any other parties in the document. However, it only refers to the parties as a ‘Major party’ or ‘national party’.
The company also has offices in 10 cities across India including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune. Equating it to colonialism, Wylie said, “This is what modern colonialism looks like.”
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
