Using a database collected in part by the company Cambridge Analytica, the Trump digital campaign team characterized voters in major swing states as “deterrent,” or voters they want to stay home on election day, African Americans make up an odd amount of those voters, Channel 4 News reported on Monday.
CNN has not looked at the data obtained by Channel 4 News and cannot verify the findings.
Channel 4 journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy said on Tuesday that “it is impossible to measure the impact of the alleged voter campaign on targeted voters,” revealing the motivations behind what the Trump campaign was trying to do. . ”
“They were trying to prevent people from voting because they knew they couldn’t win them,” said Becky Anderson of CNN International on Tuesday.
The Trump campaign responded to a CNN investigation about the Channel 4 report, calling it “fake news” and insisting that Trump “has built a relationship of trust with African American voters” by creating new opportunities and criminal justice reform Has been applied.
According to Channel 4 News, they did not answer specific questions about the database, which contained information about 200 million American voters.
In comments made to CNN after the hearing, Wyllie alleged that Black Americans were specific targets of Cambridge Analytica’s “voter disengagement strategy”, which he said was intended to “discourage or dissuade certain types of people from voting” “, And they were campaign and political action committees requesting voter suppression from Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook is facing renewed scrutiny during the 2020 election following its role in the 2016 cycle, including as a tool for Russian mediation in the US election and for spreading misinformation.
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, “Elections have changed since 2016 and Facebook has changed. What happened to Cambridge Analytica may not happen today.” “We have 35,000 people working to ensure the integrity of our platform, created a political advertising library, and protected more than 200 elections worldwide. We also have rules prohibiting the suppression of voters And are running the largest voter information campaign in American history. “
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