Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and others will likely spend time in front of Congress to speak about the scandal concerning how Cambridge Analytica gathered information.
From the site's users, Rep. Jim Himes said Wednesday, while warning Americans they should take steps to keep their private information from being used without their knowledge.
"Facebook will continue its evolution...understanding they have a real measure of social responsibility," the Connecticut Democrat told CNN's "New Day" co-host Chris Cuomo. "At some point, the videos that Facebook put up that the Russians purchased, the ads will be available that American people can see, and they will understand how manipulative it was."
However, he added, it "really needs to get into the minds of the American people, if they put information out there, there is a good chance that it becomes public...be careful about what you type into this incredible machine called the internet."
So far, Zuckerberg has not commented on the news that Cambridge Analytica had obtained data on 50 million Facebook to use for President Donald Trump's social media strategy during his 2016 campaign.
Himes said that much of what Cambridge Analytica did was "pretty sleazy," but Facebook also was "very sloppy" by sending data to a research firm.
"The piece that is getting lost here is people need to realize when they take personality quizzes, when they put the name of their favorite car or what they felt like when they had their first kiss into a quiz, that information has value," said Himes. "People are going to use it. And I think there's a real lesson here for the American people in terms of what they do with their personal information."
Cambridge Analytica not only had users' answers to Facebook quizzes, but also their friends' information..
"I don't know because I haven't read all 20 pages of the privacy agreement, I bet you on page 19, footnote 6, that's probably okay," said Himes. "People need to realize if they're not reading the privacy agreement, if they are offering up this information, it's likely to get out there either because the privacy agreement said it can or lo and behold, somebody steals it."
Himes added that Trump's campaign did not observe the traditional norms of an election, and "if his is yet another example of the trump campaign stepping over lines which are ethical but may in fact, be illegal, I certainly won't be surprised."
Meanwhile, foreign people or organizations can't contribute to election campaigns, and if that happened on Facebook, it's a violation, said Himes.
"If that happened on Facebook, and I think it did, that is a violation," said Himes. "Now, here's the interesting question there. Whether Facebook knew it was foreign money that was purchasing those ads, that is for a court of law to work it."
However, the United States' election laws are "too weak in terms of money and who can say what about whom," the congressman said. "Those should absolutely be tightened. They are there… [if] Facebook is a mechanism for the violation of our election laws, by all means they have to be held accountable."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.