Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir has reiterated his denial of having any links to Cambridge Analytica (CA), and accused the Prime Minister's Department's of issuing a misleading statement.

This was after the PMO today claimed it received confirmation from SCL Group, a sister company of CA, that it had reported directly to Mukhriz during the 13th general election in Kedah.

"That statement by PMO is misleading. I categorically deny any contact with CA at any time," he said in a statement to Malaysiakini.

Mukhriz added that Azrin Zizal, who is now the Southeast Asia head of SCL Group, was only employed as his media officer from 2009 to 2013, when he was a deputy international trade and industry minister.

"He was not employed by me as a representative of a company such as SCL Group or CA, and he was no longer my media officer when I became the Kedah menteri besar.

"Any claims otherwise is a misrepresentation of the facts intended to divert attention away from the possible use of illegal campaign tactics as admitted by CA for BN," he said.

CA received international attention after it reportedly misused millions of users’ personal data on Facebook for political ends.

The data analytics firm was also accused of using entrapment tactics against political opponents, including sending operatives to offer bribes, and springing “honey traps.”

CA’s managing director Mark Turnbull was caught on an undercover video by UK's Channel 4 as saying that the firm's job was to discover deep-rooted fears of its target audience.

"It's no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, but actually it's all about emotion," he had said.

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