Both major political parties have denied meeting with embattled elections consultants Cambridge Analytica, despite claims that one of the company's top executives was in Malta during last year’s election campaign.

The London-based company was this week accused of using the personal data of 50 million Facebook members to influence the US presidential election in 2016.

Its executives have also been filmed in an undercover sting operation suggesting they could use honey traps and potentially even bribery to discredit politicians and help influence voters.

Sources close to the island’s security services told Times of Malta that one of the company’s top executives was known to have been on the island in the build up to the 2017 general election.

The government, Labour Party, and Nationalist Party have all denied that any contact was made with the firm or any subsidiary.

Former Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil, who was at the helm of the PN during the 2017 election race, said he had no knowledge of any meeting with or approaches by the firm during his time at the helm of the party.

He and his former general secretary Rosette Thake had not met with anyone on this nor had anyone else within the party, “to our best knowledge”.

READ: Facebook share price nosedives following claims of data misuse

The Prime Minister’s chief spokesman said the government had never had any contact with Cambridge Analytica or any representative of the company.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Labour Party replied to a series of questions on the matter with a single “no”.

Questions sent to a Nationalist Party spokesman about the current administration were not replied to by the time of writing.

Sources in the political scene have suggested the Cambridge Analytica executive's 2017 visit to Malta could have been a form of window shopping. If the firm had met with local political entities, they said, this would likely have been done through third parties to “put some distance between them and have plausible deniability”.

The sources went on to allege that Cambridge Analytica was name-dropping Malta as an EU political campaign site in sales pitches to foreign political entities. “Firms like this”, they added, could be engaged for political manoeuvring other than engineering general elections – such as influencing rival parties’ internal elections.

Questions sent to Cambridge Analytica earlier this week had not yet been replied to by the time of writing.

Parties dip into social media

Parties, however, do seem to be using some form of social media data to run more effective campaigns.

Sources within both major parties told Times of Malta they had used social media data services during the 2017 general election to gauge public sentiment.

“The services we used are being used by many large companies in Malta to maximise outreach, but it was nothing like what Cambridge Analytica have been doing. None of the data used was irregular – to our knowledge,” one source said.

Alleged misuse of Facebook users' personal data has cast a pall over the firm. Photo: ShutterstockAlleged misuse of Facebook users' personal data has cast a pall over the firm. Photo: Shutterstock

According to its website, Cambridge Analytica offers services to businesses and political parties who want to “change audience behaviour”.

It claims to be able to analyse vast amounts of consumer data and combine that with behavioural science to target audiences with specific marketing material or campaigns.

The firm was set up in 2013 as an offshoot of another company, SCL Group, which offers similar services around the world.

What is the controversy surrounding the company?

A whistleblower claimed that in 2014, 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested by a UK-based company, using a backdoor on Facebook.

Using a personality survey, the company gained access to a large portion of the information was collected without authorisation and the whistleblower claims that Cambridge Analytica then weaponised that data in a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box.

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said that if true, the revelations about Cambridge Analytica were “horrifying”.

“We don’t want this in the EU and will take all possible legal measures including stricter rules under the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation that takes effect in May,” she said.

Did the Labour or Nationalist party get into bed with the firm ahead of the 2017 election?

Did the Labour or Nationalist party get into bed with the firm ahead of the 2017 election?

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