Data Platform Targets Needy To Convert To Far Rt Politics: RW Churches, Cambr A, Koch Ties: New Film

[appalachiablue]

'US: Religious data platform 'targets mentally ill, vulnerable people.' A new film reveals how Cambridge Analytica, collaborating with a software company, has created a platform for US churches that targets the poor, the addicted and the disabled — to radicalize them for far-right politics. DW, Sept. 27, 2020.



- Filmmaker Katarina Gellein & Charles Kriel traveled across the US for several years to collect info. for the film.

For their documentary People You May Know, Charles Kriel, special adviser to the UK Parliament on disinformation, and filmmaker Katharina Gellein traveled across the United States accompanied by a team of journalists and whistleblowers. Their film reveals the political connection between religious fundamentalists, oligarchs and Cambridge Analytica and its shell companies, which have fundamentally shifted the balance of politics in the United States.

DW: Tell me how the project started.

Katharina Gellein: Charles was the special adviser to the UK's Select Committee on fake news that started in 2017, and I wanted to make a film about fake news. Charles was the first person to walk through the door in Parliament and sit down and say to the MPs: "Cambridge Analytica." This was when everybody was sort of at the level of, "Oh, isn't Facebook a nice thing and isn't that good?"

And then of course, shortly after that, [Cambridge Analytica whistleblower] Chris Wiley came with his evidence and the whole case just blew the doors open.

Read more: Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data scandal: What you need to know

This evidence, I assume, pointed to some form of meddling in the Brexit referendum.

Yes. We documented it for a year, interviewed all the MPs, and then, of course, the political will to follow what the MPs recommended in their report was not that great, because it did prove that Brexit was interfered with.

And we thought, OK, where does this piece go now? Because Charles had placed himself at the nexus of people giving evidence to the committee, people kept bringing him evidence on the side. So somebody brought a whole bunch of evidence about who Cambridge Analytica collaborated with in the United States other than the Trump campaign.

Read more: Men on a mission: The Koch brothers and US conservatism

And what did you discover?

It turned out to be far-right-wing churches, conservative churches in the US. And they've built a platform that targets mentally ill or vulnerable people in order to draw them into church, to monetize them through donations. That's the short-term goal. To help them is the facade for it, but ultimately the aim is to convert them to the politics of the far right.

And we went to as many churches as we could. We spoke to as many people as we could. Charles looped in a senior academic from Melbourne and a professor of journalism at Columbia, and a whistleblower who used to work for SCL (Strategic Communication Laboratories Group), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.

And it ended up with these three tiers. We looked into the data side and then ultimately ended up finding that the people who built that platform had ties to the White House essentially through an enormous secret non-profit organization, one of the most powerful organizations in the United States...

Read More, https://www.dw.com/en/us-religious-data-platform-targets-mentally-ill-vulnerable-people/a-55062013

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=96_I-XUCN6Y&feature=emb_logo

- Trailer for new documentary, 'People You May Know,' release Sept. 28, 2020.

This film follows Charles Kriel, specialist advisor to UK Parliament on disinformation, when he discovers Cambridge Analytica collaborating with a software company creating a microtargeting platform for US churches, targeting vulnerable people - the poor, the grieving, the addicted - to radicalise them for far-right politics.

With US 2020 elections coming, Kriel gathers a team of whistle blowers and journalists, and journeys across America with his young family, where he discovers a powerful organisation with ties to the heart of the White House. The man who commissioned CA is a member of the most powerful secret political organisation in the United States, with an agenda to rewrite the Constitution according to Christian law. Going undercover, he risks everything to gain access where no outsider has ever set foot.

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[Karadeniz]

1. I wish a major t.v.network would show this so that it received max viewers.

[appalachiablue]

2. Absolutely, so many are uniformed about this movement

and more.

[appalachiablue]

3. As the weak safety net in America declines even more,

people in need will seek aid and food from charitable organizations, many of which are funded by religious groups.