Franken hammers tech companies in return to spotlight

Al Franken hammered major technology companies in one of his first public speeches since resigning from the Senate over allegations of sexual harassment.

Franken criticized Silicon Valley firms, in particular Facebook, for what he viewed as their careless handling of user data.

{mosads}”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,” Franken said during a cybersecurity conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday.

He called instances like Facebook’s data scandal with Cambridge Analytica and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election “not surprising” given “tech companies’ failure to protect users, and the U.S. government’s failure to hold them accountable.”

Franken argued that the threat of Russians attempting to manipulate tech platforms is still present.

“They’ll be back. They never left,” he said.

In November, before being pressured to leave Congress, Franken gave a scathing speech lambasting tech firms and arguing that they should be more tightly regulated.

“No one company should have the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn’t,” he said at the time. “And Facebook, Google and Amazon, like ISPs, should be neutral in their treatment of the flow of lawful information and commerce on their platform.”

Franken stepped down from his post as a Minnesota senator on Jan. 2 amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.