Cambridge Analytica, Facebook data-harvest firm, to shut

New Delhi: Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the centre of the Facebook data-sharing scandal, is shutting down, Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.

Soon after the news broke, the company confirmed the report in a press release, saying SCL Group has filed for insolvency, and that bankruptcy proceedings will begin soon for Cambr-idge Analytica as well.

Cambridge Analytica has been accused of improperly obtaining personal information on behalf of political clients in the US, UK and India, among other nations.

According to Facebook, data about up to 87 million of its members was harvested by an app and then passed onto the political consultancy.

The overwhelmingly bad press generated by the news cycle appears to have been too much for the company. In Wednesday’s statement, it said, “The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the Company’s customers and suppliers.”