Cambridge Analytica’s parent company helped Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte take office after already influencing voters in dozens of campaigns around the globe, in keeping with media reports and knowledge from the corporate’s website.
Strategic Communications Laboratories, the SCL group that owns the political consulting firm at the middle of the Facebook data collection scandal in reference to the 2016 US presidential race, boasted on its website that it helped elect Duterte in 2016, renaming him a troublesome crime fighter. .
The company removed content from the web site related to the 2016 Philippine elections, but archived versions can still be found online. Although SCL didn’t name its Filipino client, the briefing specifically named former Davao City Mayor Duterte, who was one among six candidates within the 2016 race.
“In the run-up to the national elections, the incumbent was widely perceived as benevolent and honorable, which his campaign team believed had the potential to win the election,” SCL said in its online content. “However, SCL research found that many sections of the electorate were more likely to be influenced by traits such as decisiveness and decisiveness. “SCL leveraged the intersectional issue of crime to rebrand the client as a strong, no-nonsense man of action who appeals to voters’ true values.”
SCL still lists the Philippines as an area of operations, but now not describes what it does there.
Then-NPC president Joel Egco, now undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), reported on Nix’s visit to Manila in May 2015.
He said South China Morning Mail that on the time he didn’t know that SCL was operating within the Philippines, nor did he have an “intuition” that Duterte would change into a client of the corporate.
“I was still a member of the press,” Egco said, insisting he was not affiliated with Duterte’s presidential bid on the time.
– I do not even remember him [Nix’s] he now not needed to face… But I remember being surprised when he said that cellular phone texting would influence the presidential election.”
Watch: Learn about Cambridge Analytica’s data collection methods
In the Eggco story published within the magazine Manila times in May 2015 and titled “Texts, Emails That Will Decide Future Polls – Expert,” Nix provides a rare insight into SCL’s covert activities within the Philippines and potentially dozens of other countries.
We must tap into the behavioral aspects that can ultimately influence the voter once they’re on the polling place
“The election campaign will never be the same again due to the emergence of cutting-edge technologies,” the then director of SCL was quoted as saying.
“The traditional and conventional methods used in every election of the last century may still work, but they will be different from the new strategies and tactics that are the products of behavioral microtargeting, psychographic profiling, predictive analytics, and many other modern tools.”
Nix boasted that SCL had a “100% success rate” in greater than 100 election campaigns in Asia, Africa, India and Western Europe, and claimed that the corporate’s methods could end in a “fundamentally flawed” candidate being elected, maximizing his “lovable qualities”.
“Even if you only have one surprisingly likable trait, with the right combination of strategies you can win an election against a very formidable opponent.”
In 2015, he also said that SCL was “helping the United States Republican Party take back the White House from the Democrats.”
Although Nix didn’t mention Facebook on this story, he said the corporate has managed to succeed in voters through social media and gadgets equivalent to cell phones and private computers. Unlike traditional polling methods, Nix said SCL uses “psychography” to vary opinions.
“We need to tap into the behavioral factors that will ultimately influence the voter once they are at the polling place… Technology can be more effective at reaching them and changing their behavior toward something.”
The SCL website also featured testimonials from former heads of state, including the late Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was quoted as saying: “I’m grateful to SCL for its strategic management of my electoral success.”
Similarly, SCL quoted former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai as saying: “Winning elections is about choosing your battles carefully. SCL has clearly defined which conflicts can be won, those that cannot be won, and those that must be fought hard.”
In relation to its activities in Thailand, SCL explained that through the “world’s largest election campaign OpCentre” it was in a position to “determine the behavior of Thai voters right down to the constituency level”.
Leekpai is currently seen as a possible candidate for prime minister.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: The data company says it put Duterte in office
