The president’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has dismissed claims that Cambridge Analytica’s work for Donald Trump’s campaign played a role in the 2016 election win.
Facebook came under further pressure from lawmakers, investors, advertisers and users on Thursday, the day after Mark Zuckerberg admitted the social media network made mistakes in letting 50 million users’ data get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Bannon, who helped create Cambridge Analytica, said the consultancy firm just took Facebook data that was already widely available.
‘That is Facebook’s business model,’ he added. ‘They take your stuff for free and sell it and monetize it for huge margins . . . then they write algorithms and run your life,’ Bannon told the Financial Times during the Future of News conference in New York.
The president’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon (pictured on Thursday) has dismissed claims that Cambridge Analytica’s work for Donald Trump’s campaign played a role in the 2016 election win
Bannon then claimed that liberals and ‘the opposition media’ have just been looking for excuses to explain Hillary Clinton’s election loss
Bannon then claimed that liberals and ‘the opposition media’ have just been looking for excuses to explain Hillary Clinton’s election loss.
‘Here’s what won it for Trump — economic nationalism and talking in a plain voice to the American people.’
Bannon was ousted from the White House last August. In January, Bannon stepped down as executive chairman of right-wing news site, Breitbart News, he drew fire from Trump for harshly criticizing his eldest son.
He also commented on the recent departures at the White House, saying he doesn’t believe Trump would appoint another chief of staff if John Kelly were to leave.
‘If Kelly leaves I don’t believe there will be another chief of staff — instead there will be five or six reports like in Trump Tower.’
Bannon also had a few things to say about Zuckerberg, who apologized on Wednesday about the reports of data misuse.
Bannon was ousted from the White House last August. In January, Bannon stepped down as executive chairman of right-wing news site, Breitbart News, he drew fire from Trump for harshly criticizing his eldest son
Bannon also had a few things to say about Zuckerberg (pictured), who apologized on Wednesday about the reports of data misuse
‘His entire business model is made up upon taking that data for free and monetizing it, and then writing algorithms behind a wall that treat you like hamsters on a wheel. That’s their business model,’ Bannon said.
He later added that Zuckerberg sounded ‘like a first-year associate’ during his interviews, in which ‘nobody asked a tough follow-up question’.
US lawmakers have demanded Zuckerberg personally testify in Washington to explain his company’s actions.
Zuckerberg said in media interviews on Thursday that he would be willing to testify if he is the right person at the company to speak to lawmakers.
Meanwhile, advertisers Mozilla and Commerzbank suspended ads on the service and the hashtag #DeleteFacebook remained popular online, although it was hard to tell how many users are abandoning Facebook.
In light of those concerns, investors continued to sell off Facebook shares, although not at the pace of earlier in the week.
They closed on Thursday at $164.89, down 2.7 per cent. The S&P 500 Index was down 2.5 per cent on the day. Facebook shares closed at $185.09 on Friday.
The company has lost more than $50 billion in market value since the allegations emerged this week.