Cambridge Analytica is closing, reports say
In this April 18, 2017, file photo, conference workers speak in front of a demo booth at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. AP
Cambridge Analytica, the marketing research company at the heart of the Facebook data breach, is shutting down, according to media reports.
Cambridge Analytica's parent company, SCL Group, said it was closing its U.S. offices during a Wednesday conference call with employees, according to documents reviewed by Gizmodo. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group are shutting down. SCL Group's founder, Nigel Oakes, made the comments to The Journal.
Julian Wheatland, SCL Group's chairman and the man who was supposed to become the next full-time CEO of Cambridge Analytica after Alexander Nix stepped, led the call.
Cambridge Analytica has not yet responded to a request for comment from Fox News.
Reports emerged recently that Cambridge Analytica had improperly used information from as many as 87 million accounts on the social network, prompting Facebook to suspend the U.K.-based company. Cambridge Analytica, which has ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign, denies any wrongdoing.
Most of the affected users are in the U.S., Facebook has previously said.
Earlier this week, Twitter said it sold data to GSR, former Cambridge Analytica employee's Aleksandr Kogan business, giving GSR one-time access to its API (application programming interface) to a random sample of public tweets posted between December 2014 and April 2015.
In a statement to The Telegraph, Twitter said:
"Twitter has also made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned and operated by Cambridge Analytica. This decision is based on our determination that Cambridge Analytica operates using a business model that inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practices. Cambridge Analytica may remain an organic user on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules."
Following the reports, Cambridge Analytica said that the data that Kogan purchased was never used by Cambridge.
"Cambridge Analytica has never received Twitter data from GSR or Aleksandr Kogan, and has never done any work with GSR on Twitter data," the company tweeted on April 30. "GSR was only ever a contractor to Cambridge Analytica and we understand it did work for many other companies."