Carole Cadwalladr, Who Exposed the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, to Speak at True North Festival

Pulitzer-nominated journalist will deliver keynote in Kitchener, Ont. on June 3, 2020

KITCHENER, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Carole Cadwalladr, the investigative journalist who blew open the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018, will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming True North Festival 2020, Communitech announced today.

Featured in Netflix’s The Great Hack, Cadwalladr is a Pulitzer-nominated reporter and feature writer for The Observer, sister publication to The Guardian, the respected British newspaper. In 2018, she worked alongside The New York Times to break a story that sent shockwaves around the world: that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting company, had illicitly harvested data from millions of Facebook accounts to influence political campaigns, including Donald Trump’s successful 2016 U.S. presidential bid.

The scandal prompted the U.S. Congress to call Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify and ultimately led the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to fine Facebook $5 billion, the largest penalty ever levied against a tech company.

“As we continue conversations around tech for good, it is critical for all of us to examine the implications of the technology that our community is working so hard to develop,” said Saj Jamal, vice-president of marketing and events at Communitech. “Carole Cadwalladr has dedicated much of her career to ensuring that big tech is held accountable in the public sphere and we are thrilled to have her share her story at True North. She may not have friends on Facebook, but she has many admirers in Canada.”

In its third year, True North Festival will take place in the heart of Waterloo Region from June 1-7, 2020. This week-long event series is where tech founders, creative thinkers, movers, shakers and policymakers come together to examine what it means to be human – and humane – in our tech-driven world.

Cadwalladr will deliver her keynote and explain how she became Cambridge Analytica’s least favourite person on June 3, 2020 at Centre in the Square, during Communitech's Centre Stage programming.

To get your pass and learn more about the events taking place in Waterloo Region during True North Festival 2020, be sure to check out Truenorthwaterloo.com.

About Communitech

Communitech was founded in 1997 by a group of entrepreneurs committed to making Waterloo Region a global innovation leader. At the time it was crazy talk, but somehow this community managed to pull it off. Today, Communitech is a public-private innovation hub that supports a community of more than 1,400 companies — from startups to scale-ups to large global players.

Communitech helps tech companies start, grow and succeed in three distinct ways.

• Communitech is a place – the centre of gravity for entrepreneurs and innovators. A clubhouse for building cool tech and great companies.
• Communitech delivers programs – helping companies at all stages with access to capital, customers and talent. We are here to help them grow and innovate.
• Communitech partners in building a world-leading ecosystem – making sure we have all the ingredients (and the brand) to help companies go from a small startup to a global giant.