The suspended chief executive of Cambridge Analytica has claimed in a secretly recorded video broadcast that his political consultancy's online campaign played a decisive role in President Donald Trump's 2016 election victory.
CEO Alexander Nix's comments, which could not be verified, are potentially a further problem for Facebook as it faces lawmakers' scrutiny in the United States and Europe over the firm's improper use of 50 million Facebook users' personal data to target voters.
The social media network's shares fell for a second day, closing down 2.5 per cent, as investors worried that its dealings with Cambridge Analytica might damage its reputation, deter advertisers and invite restrictive regulation.
The company has lost $60 billion of its stock market value over the last two days.
Cambridge Analytica's board of directors suspended Nix on Tuesday, shortly before the second part of British broadcaster Channel 4's expose of the UK company's methods.
In the program Nix describes questionable practices used to influence foreign elections and said his firm did all the research, analytics and targeting of voters for Trump's digital and TV campaigns.
He also boasts he met Trump when he was the Republican presidential candidate "many times".
Nix's comments "do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation", Cambridge Analytica said in a statement on Tuesday.
Cambridge Analytica has denied all the media claims and said it deleted the data after learning the information did not adhere to data protection rules.
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and now senior adviser, oversaw the Trump campaign's digital operations. One former Trump adviser said Kushner brought Cambridge Analytica into the 2016 campaign effort.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie told the Washington Post on Tuesday that in 2014 conservative strategist Steve Bannon, who would go on to be Trump's White House adviser, oversaw the firm's early efforts to collect Facebook data to build detailed profiles on millions of American voters.
Bannon approved spending nearly $US1 million to acquire data, including Facebook profiles, in 2014, Wylie told the Post.
US and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how Cambridge Analytica gained access to user data in 2014 and why Facebook failed to inform its users, raising broader industry questions about consumer privacy.
"The entire company is outraged we were deceived," Facebook said in a statement on Tuesday. "We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens."
Facebook was also hit on Tuesday in a San Francisco court by the first of what could be many lawsuits by shareholders claiming to suffer losses because the company misled them about its ability to protect user data.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called on Tuesday for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in Congress.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a long-term investigation of alleged Russian interference in US politics, would carry out its own inquiry of Cambridge Analytica, a Congressional official with direct knowledge of the investigation said.
Australian Associated Press
