President Rodrigo Duterte’s social media director Juan Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña clarifies issue linking his win to Cambridge Analytica.
Juan Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña, the social media director of President Rodrigo Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign clarified the issue linking his win to research firm Cambridge Analytica.
It can be recalled that speculations started to arise that the Philippine President was a client of Strategic Communications Laboratories, the mother company of Cambridge Analytica, during the previous election, in which the personal data of Facebook users were used without them knowing about it.
In a previous article, the administration has already stated that the Duterte won fairly and people should respect the result of 2016 poll.
Recently, the social media director of the President has spoken out regarding this matter.
La Viña sat down for an interview in Rappler and he was asked directly if Cambridge Analytica has a connection to the campaign of Duterte last 2016.
He said direct to the point that the said research firm did not do anything for Duterte’s campaign.
The issue also fired up when his photo with now-suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix on May 2015, a year before the 2016 presidential election.
He admitted that the said photo with Nix is real and it was in the timeline of his social media account and it has been there all along.
That was during the time that Nix visited in the country and he had delivered a talk about new techniques in election campaigns, based on the report.
According to the social media director of the Chief Executive, that was the only time he talked with the director of SCL who is still in the position until now.
On the other hand, La Viña shared that his work as the director of social media for Duterte’s campaign was influenced by the work of Nix as the CEO of Cambridge Analytica during that time.