A private military contractor was running voter manipulation campaigns by 2005

Evidence

According to Kogan, Wylie got in touch to discuss turning this into a corporate project for Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, ‘SCL Elections Ltd’. SCL – which stands for ‘Strategic Communications Laboratory’ – is a military contractor founded in 1990 that engaged in psychological warfare on behalf of the US and UK governments and claims to have been the first private sector company to have offered ‘influence operations’. Already back in 2005, the magazine Slate reported that the company had been influencing elections in developing countries by targeting voters and manipulating public opinion – often through disinformation. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 501