No longer fringe - our elections are being hacked

The shadowy conspiracy theory becomes mainstream.

A probe into the political use of private data has been opened by the information commissioner. Elizabeth Denham announced the review amid concerns over allegations involving an analytics firm linked to a Brexit campaign. It follows calls for an investigation into claims that Leave.EU had not declared the role of Cambridge Analytica (CA) in its campaign. The Electoral Commission says its powers do not extend beyond the UK.

But Ms Denham said: "Having considered the evidence we have already gathered, I have decided to open a formal investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes. "This will involve deepening our current activity to explore practices deployed during the UK's EU referendum campaign, but potentially also in other campaigns." The probe was sparked by Labour's Stephen Kinnock, a remain campaigner, who called on the Electoral Commission to look into links between Leave.EU and CA.

Claire Bassett, the commission's chief executive, said, while it had "very clear rules" governing the permissibility of donations and printed materials, such as campaign leaflets, it has no power to stop overseas individuals or governments using social media to influence British elections. "At the moment the rules apply to print media - so if you get a leaflet through your door, that should have an imprint on it which makes it clear who's produced that leaflet and where it's come from so you know who's campaigning for your vote," she said. "At the moment those rules don't extend to social media and we've recommended that that should happen."
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-39946801