Clearview AI says the First Amendment lets it scrape the internet. Lawyers disagree

The First Amendment protects a lot of things, even flipping off a cop or burning the flag. But it may not give a controversial facial recognition company the right to keep scraping data from the internet for a database of more than 3 billion images.

On a CBS This Morning segment on Wednesday, Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That said his company has a First Amendment right to access public data, including photos from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Venmo. It uses those photos for a controversial database primarily accessed by law enforcement. (Disclosure: CBS News and CNET are owned by the same parent company.)

Facebook, Twitter and Google have already sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview, saying data scraping violates their terms of service. Clearview's legal counsel has been in touch with the companies, Ton-That told CBS, defending the practice with the first item in the Bill of Rights. On Thursday, LinkedIn said it's also sending a cease-and-desist letter to the company.