Al Franken speaks out for first time since resignation

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In his first major public speech since resigning from the U.S. Senate, Al Franken returned to the spotlight to deliver a blistering rebuke of tech companies, specifically Facebook, over abuse of users privacy data while speaking at a cybersecurity conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

During his speech, Franken suggested Facebook was careless with users' information following the revelation that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtained data on as many as 87 million users.

"Facebook doesn't have to care about the privacy and security of their users' online information because there's no mass exodus when it violates those rules," said Franken. He said the tech giant took so long to address the issues and ultimately didn't do enough to prevent data harvesting "because they knew they could get away with it."

While Franken focused mostly on user privacy, he also touched on the current political climate and future of democracy.

"If we can't have a political discourse where we agree on basic, objective facts, then our democratic government will continue to be polarized and paralyzed," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/al-franken-speaks-out-for-first-time-since-resignation/ar-AAwDYBC?li=BBnb7Kz

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Like most of us he is perplexed what to do about a traitorous nazi and the SIXTY MILLION

who support him.

[democratisphere]

4. What to do. There is really no answer.

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. VOTE and hope if the KGB can overturn one million votes we will show up with two

[Honeycombe8]

19. Remember November! VOTE! nt

[NCTraveler]

2. Video

&feature=youtu.be&ftag=MSF0951a18

Go to the eleven minute mark.

[dalton99a]

3. +1

[hlthe2b]

7. Gawd, what we've lost. It is heartening to hear him and devastating at the same time

to realize no one has likely picked up the issues he was championing, or at least with the same dedication and intelligence.

[NCTraveler]

8. He is brilliant and thoughtful. nt.

[FakeNoose]

16. Al Franken is an awesome writer

Really, I've read all his books and they're great. He was a writer on Saturday Night Live for something like 14 years.

If Al can't or won't get back into politics himself, he could team up with somebody great and be a campaign strategist and speechwriter. With Al on the campaign, that person would be a sure-fire winner. It would be the next leg of his career, and he'd be back on top.

[Honeycombe8]

20. +1. nt

[democratisphere]

5. Great to see All Franken back at it!

We need his strong voice now more than ever!

[calimary]

11. No kidding. It will be hard for me to forget what Gillibrand did.

And how much her vigilante “justice” cost us all. Especially when I can’t remember her getting all fired up and militant when trump gave her a thousand reasons and a LEGITIMATE target on which to flex her political muscle.

Won’t forget, Kirsten. Hard to forgive. Awfully hard.

[OMGWTF]

17. I Cringe Everytime I see Kirsten Gillibrand on the Electric Teevee Machine

[True Blue American]

22. If Franken ran for President

I would back him 100%! That is how I feel by him being railroaded by tweed I’m, then his fellow Democrats.

Not going to change my mind on that!

[Honeycombe8]

21. +1. nt

[democratisphere]

27. I will not forget what Gillibrand and Schumer did to Al Franken.

[workinclasszero]

9. Al needs to be back in government

in some capacity.

In a future dem cabinet or something.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. His speech is a must listen.

And did you notice what happened in the last two hours,Cambridge shuts down all US operations. And Facebook is now admitting they are losing customers.

[FakeNoose]

15. Cambridge knows they're busted and they've already metastacized into other companies

Probably their new companies are even more evil, so we'll see what happens.

Facebook is losing younger users, all that will be left are the old farts. No advertisers want old people looking at their ads, so the ad money will start going down very soon. Facebook says they're starting a dating site, but really, who would use that? Just desperate losers and pedos.

[Wellstone ruled]

18. The Guardian ran a piece

several weeks back detailing this new Mercer Company. From the gist of the story,this new operation is more refined and more dangerous than the original. And the Author of the Story more or less said,this was Mercer's attempt at limiting exposure to legal money issues which are working there way through several Court systems.

And it looks like Facebook is going to go full on Libertarian with zero regards to information protection.

[FakeNoose]

25. I'm so glad I never joined Facebook!

I still get tons of FB spam though.

[lostnfound]

28. Doesn't mean they don't have a shadow profile on you

Google Facebook and “shadow profile”.

[underpants]

12. Al is still awesome

[NurseJackie]

13. AL FRANKEN totally ROCKS!! He's one of us... HE IS A *TRUE* DEMOCRAT!

He was also railroaded. I'll never forgive those who did that to him.

[mountain grammy]

14. I watched it live. The link was posted here on DU.

Excellent speech followed by a really good Q and A session.

[LAS14]

23. I look forward to hearing more from him. nt

[NoMoreRepugs]

24. 1600 on the SAT is the same as the total scores of all the GOP members of the Senate

and the HOUSE.

[zentrum]

26. Still mad and

….heart broken that he was pushed out. One of our strongest Democrats. The whole country was hurt by his ouster, which I think was the result of pure political calculation by Gillibrand.


Grrrrrr.