In March, media reports emerged that personal information of about 50 million Facebook users had been harvested by Cambridge Analytica without their permission through a special app designed by Kogan. According to The Guardian newspaper, in 2015, Kogan proposed researching how Facebook activity was linked to one's socioeconomic status and environment.
According to the media outlet, the documents were released ahead of a House of Commons hearing where Kogan is scheduled to appear in connection with an investigation into fake news and information. The scholar had reportedly never previously mentioned the fact that his research was rejected by the university.
Facebook has acknowledged that the information of millions users of the social network — up to 87 million people mostly located in the United States, according to the recent estimates — was harvested by Cambridge Analytica. The firm gathered the information from social media accounts to develop a mechanism that would predict and influence the behavior of voters.
