Cambridge Analytica Suspends Its CEO

The board of Cambridge Analytica, the company that allegedly used data mined from Facebook to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election, says it has suspended CEO Alexander Nix pending a full independent investigation of his actions, the AP reports. The board cited comments Nix made to an undercover reporter for Britain's Channel 4 News and other allegations of wrongdoing for its action Tuesday. It said his comments "do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view the violation." The board said in an announcement posted on the data mining company's website that the suspension was effective immediately.

Channel 4 News broadcast clips Tuesday that show Nix saying his data mining firm played a major role in securing Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election, including "all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting." Nix also said Cambridge Analytica used emails set with a "self-destruct timer" during the Trump campaign to make its role more difficult to trace. He said: "There's no evidence, there's no paper trail, there's nothing." The program says Nix made the comments to a reporter posing as a wealthy potential client seeking to use Cambridge Analytica to influence campaigns in Sri Lanka.

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