RIO DE JANEIRO _ Ponte Estrategia, the Brazilian partner of data research firm Cambridge Analytica, has asked to suspend its agreement with the London-based company less than seven months before the South American nation goes to the polls.
Andre Torretta, the head of the Brazilian firm, emailed Cambridge Analytica with the request after reports that data from 50 million Facebook users were allegedly harvested without permission by the company. Torretta said by phone he hasn't heard back yet.
"Were it some other circumstance, they would have called, given me an explanation," Torretta said. "Their lack of response is not pleasing."
Latin America's largest democracy will vote for a new president in October at a moment in which its citizens are deeply divided. Brazil's polarization has some similarities with that of the U.S during the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump, who enlisted Cambridge Analytica's services to target potential voters.
In a secretly-recorded video released on Monday, the company's executives told an undercover reporter they were "going to Brazil" as they discussed the questionable tactics they used to influence elections. Its CEO, Alexander Nix, has since been suspended by the company pending an internal investigation.
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A Cambridge Analytica spokesperson didn't immediately return a request for comment. The company told Bloomberg last November its agreement with Ponte wasn't exclusive, but that it wasn't working with any other company in Brazil. The company said in a March 17 statement it originally obtained the Facebook information from a third-party contractor without knowing how it had been obtained, then deleted it without using it as part of the services it provided to Trump's campaign.
Meanwhile in Brazil, Ponte doesn't expect the scandal to hold back its progress, Torretta said. It has closed deals with three gubernatorial hopefuls already, and remains in talks with potential presidential candidates.
"For me it won't change anything, in spite of all this confusion," Torretta said.
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