Facebook suspends Canadian firm amid data mining scandal

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook says it has suspended a Canadian political consulting firm amid media reports it had ties to Cambridge Analytica, a British data mining company accused of obtaining data from up to 87 million Facebook users to sway elections.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook says in a statement issued Saturday that AggregateIQ may have improperly received data from Facebook users. AggregateIQ will lose all Facebook access.

Cambridge Analytica was employed by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It says it received data from 30 million users but never used it in the 2016 campaign.

Whistleblowers say AggregateIQ worked on the campaign for Great Britain to exit the European Union.

AggregateIQ says on its website it isn’t part of Cambridge Analytica or parent firm SCL. It says it didn’t have access to Facebook data from Cambridge Analytica.