Washington Free Beacon staff writer Elizabeth Harrington said Monday that the Cambridge Analytica data operation used in Donald Trump’s campaign did not corrupt the election.
A former employee with Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, has accused the data firm of improperly obtaining information through Facebook and even said it was able to "warp" people’s thoughts in Donald Trump's favor. Harrington argued Wylie was overstating the impact of data operations in the 2016 presidential election.
"This pink-haired vegan Christopher Wylie, who’s this whistleblower, says that Cambridge Analytica had the power to warp your perception of what is real around you," Harrington said. "But the problem here is people didn't have to have their minds warped to vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. In the end, I don't think this affects what happened in 2016."
Later in the segment, Fox News host Marjorie Clifton played a clip of Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) saying that technology companies such as Facebook need to do better at controlling users’ data.
"Their growth has been a lot faster than perhaps their ability to mature institutionally from within on some of these challenges that they're facing," Rubio said. "I think another part about it is sometimes these companies grow so fast and get so much good press they get up high on themselves and start to think they are above the rules that apply to everybody else."
Harrington granted that social media and other sources of online data are powerful, but she said people should recognize that this is not a new phenomenon.
"There is so much scrutiny because Republicans use data mining and were trying to target voters," Harrington said. "In 2008, Barack Obama was the first ‘Facebook president,’ right? He used social media, he had one of the co-founders of Facebook, Chris Hughes, working on his campaign."
"Did that give him an advantage on social media?" she asked. "I bet it did."
She said people should be aware of the media’s double standard, and she cautioned against assuming Cambridge Analytica has the power to turn elections.
"Of course, we should look at these things and be wary about them, but I think there is a double standard here as well," Harrington said. "The idea that social media tripped the election for Trump, I think it’s just not the case. That’s what these stories really try to say."