Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Robert McDowell told Breitbart News Saturday that when he was an FCC commissioner, national security officials told him not to sign up for Facebook or Twitter, citing national security concerns.
McDowell told Breitbart News Saturday, “Our national security folks told me ‘Do not sign up for that.’ I wasn’t on Twitter and I wasn’t on Facebook. They said that there were bad guys out there and bad states who can glean information from that and used that to guess passwords or who knows what to be used against you.”
McDowell added that he was referring to “nation-states,” when he said “bad guys.”
McDowell also discussed the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal with Breitbart News Saturday hosts Amanda House and Matthew Boyle.
Facebook’s reputation plummeted after reports revealed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica used the social media platform to gain access to the personal data of more than 87 million users. A recent Reuters poll suggests that only 41 percent of consumers trust Facebook to comply with American privacy laws.
“I think this is a watershed moment for how people will perceive privacy,” McDowell told Breitbart News Saturday.
McDowell then cautioned that although Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies remain powerful, “the Internet allows for disruption pretty quickly. I think there is a market for other social media platforms.”
“The 2016 election taught us about populism. There’s an inherent distrust of things that are big and powerful,” McDowell remarked.
“I think this will push Congress, maybe even on a bipartisan basis, to do something about privacy,” McDowell added.
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