Cambridge Analytica, LLC is a data mining company that uses social media to develop advertising. They take public information from social media sites and sell that information to companies for advertising. The key phrase here is public information.

They are not going into your account and using private information. They are using what you post and selling that to companies for more defined advertising. It is information you have willingly posted on the internet.

The argument is this violates your privacy. Notice that they take your public information, package it and sell it to companies for advertising.

Privacy cannot be violated if you publicly disclose the information. Companies have been doing this for years in the form of surveys and test groups. It is nothing new.

No other companies, such as Amazon and Google, are testifying before Congress. The next time you look up an item and do not purchase on Amazon, think about what will happen. It is guaranteed that you will receive an e-mail with related items to your search. The item was not put into your cart, it was only searched for on their site. How do you think they get that information?

Google does the same thing. In fact, Google saves every search that has been completed on their website in their database. When you search for an item on Google, almost immediately the next page you go to will have an advertisement for that same item.

How did that happen?

This is exactly what Facebook does and nobody bats an eye when the other companies do it. All the media has to do is involve the government and it becomes a national breach of our trust. Where are all the other companies that breach our trust? Back in Silicon Valley or Seattle, Washington, watching Mark Zuckerburg's testimony to Congress from their plush offices.

Mark Zuckerburg's testimony

The reason everyone should be up in arms in what Mark Zuckerburg said during his testimony to Congress about Facebook developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor posts. Facebook's artificial intelligence (AI) peruses posts to ensure they are good. AI technology is looking for good in everyone's posts on Facebook.

AI has to be programmed by somebody to mimic human's thought processes which could include a hidden bias for every Facebook post. So the robot decides what to flag, which then goes to their content managers who make the final decision. Facebook now decides what the content should be. This is a violation of the first amendment of our Constitution.

Facebook is not the authority on what is good or bad. The users of Facebook decide - not AI technology. If users like the posted content, then they celebrate it. Likewise, if they do not like it, then they respond accordingly.

Freedom Of Speech does not mean you have to say something that everyone agrees with. It means that you have the right to say what you want as long as it does not violate the letter of the law.

Freedom of speech also gives them the right to oppose the view and state their displeasure.

The reason we should be up in arms against Facebook is the fact that they censor our speech. This great nation gave the authority of its people to speak their minds. Why was this the first amendment? The authors of the constitution just overcame a type of government that took away their voice. Our voice is the only thing we have to keep us free and not allow the government to control us. We have that right and should use it whenever we see injustices in our country.

Conclusion

People have the right to their opinion and do not always have to agree with the opposition. Nothing should be able to take that away from us.

We must step up and demand that Facebook puts all views on equal footing and allows everyone to post as long as it is within the letter of the law.

Here is an example of a post that would violate the letter of the law. Every day someone is charged with assault and battery. The assumption is that assault is the act of hitting somebody but actually, that is battery. Assault is the threat of violence and that is not protected by the first amendment.

All the users of Facebook need to step up and become the final authority on what is good or bad. We do not need a company to tell us whether it is or not. The first amendment protects all opinions regardless of content.

As Facebook's conversation are public, the right to privacy is no longer valid.

Our right to privacy is also protected by the Constitution but once that conversation is made public, it is no longer private. The company now has the right to that conversation and can do whatever they want with it. In fact, anybody on the internet could take that information and do what they want with it.

If you do not want your information sold or re-posted, then do not post it. We must police ourselves in both what we want others to know and whether the content is good or bad. I personally do not want a robot to decide whether my content is good or bad.

When I share something, I want others to judge the content and use their right to respond their approval or disapproval. Readers should not be censored because they have the right to their opinion. Their views, whether negative or positive are protected under the first amendment.
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