Cambridge Analytica’s Interim CEO Resigns

Cambridge Analytica announced that its acting CEO is stepping down from the position.

While Alexander Tayler is leaving his current role, he will “resume his former position as chief data officer.”

“We would like to thank Dr. Tayler for his service in what has been a challenging time for the company,” Cambridge Analytica’s board of directors said in a statement, according to Politico.

Tayler took over after CEO Alexander Nix’s suspension last month while the company conducted a full investigation of his actions regarding the Facebook data scandal, where 87 million of the social media site’s users had their data shared with the controversial research firm.

The company’s board cited comments Nix made to an undercover reporter for Britain’s Channel 4 News regarding its decision to suspend him. The clips show Nix admitting his firm played a major role in securing Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including “all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting.”

Nix also said the company used emails with a “self-destruct timer” during the campaign to make its role more difficult to trace.

“There’s no evidence, there’s no paper trail, there’s nothing,” he said.

The company did not immediately reveal who would replace Tayler as acting CEO, but there are reports that Julian Wheatland, chairman of Cambridge Analytica’s British affiliate, will take on the role.

The U.K. parliamentary media committee has also asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence in an investigation into the scandal.

In the meantime, Zuckerberg is busy testifying before Congress about his company’s role in the breach.

“We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company. It is impossible to start a company in your dorm room without making mistakes,” Zuckerberg said of the errors made during the “move fast and break stuff” era. “Overall, I would say we’re going through a broader philosophical shift.

“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well,” he continued. “And that goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”