Well, I Laughed 143: Dirty Data Dump [Liar Liar pt.1: Cambridge Analytica]
Feb 25, 2026
A deep dive into how data about people was collected and weaponized for political influence. They trace the rise of data firms from military psyops to electoral campaigns and follow the Cambridge Analytica story from methods to whistleblowing. The conversation hits Facebook data harvesting, psychographic targeting, high-profile political campaigns, legal fallout, and lasting effects on democracy.
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Do So Campaign Depressed Youth Turnout In Trinidad
- In Trinidad and Tobago SCL ran the Do So youth campaign to depress turnout among Afro-Trinidadian young voters.
- Alexander Nix boasted turnout drop of ~40% among 18–35s, swinging the election by ~6% to elect Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Super Samples Were Expensive Moral Experiments
- SCL created 'super samples' by surveying ~60,000 people to model societal issues rather than just candidate preference.
- Maia notes these cost >£1M and became financially unsustainable, pushing SCL toward wealthy outsider clients.
Personality Quizzes Let Likes Predict Traits
- Christopher Wylie and Cambridge researchers used Facebook Open Graph personality quizzes to map 'likes' to Big Five traits.
- Maia explains apps harvested consenting users plus their friends' data, snowballing to tens of millions.