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Data breach is taken seriously, and in Washington, D.C., Attorney Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his involvement in a data breach scandal with now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The attorney general alleges that Zuckerberg’s failure to oversee consumers’ data privacy played a significant role in the scandal. As a result, the political consulting firm used millions of Facebook users’ data (without their knowledge) in the 2016 election to favor Donald Trump. “Our investigation shows extensive evidence that Zuckerberg was personally involved in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident,” said Racine.
The civil suit, filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, claims the Meta CEO violated the Consumer Protection Procedures Act, the District’s general consumer protection law.
“This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans’ personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook’s wrongful conduct,” said the general attorney. “This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions.”
In 2018, Facebook revealed that the personal information of about 87 million users might have been “improperly shared” with Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign. Racine’s complaint reads that “this data trove included Facebook users’ ages, interests, pages they’ve liked, groups they belong to, physical locations, political affiliation, religious affiliation, relationships, and photos, as well as their full names, phone numbers, and email addresses.”
“In other words, Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook Platform –in a way that Facebook and Zuckerberg encouraged– to influence and manipulate the outcome of a United States presidential election,” continued the file.
Racine previously attempted to name the CEO personally responsible for the user data leak in a 2018 suit related to Cambridge Analytica, but the judge dismissed the case and said Racine waited too long to name Zuckerberg in the case. Earlier this year, the same court denied the attorney general’s attempt to add Zuckerberg as a defendant in the District’s original 2018 lawsuit against Facebook.
Since the suit was filed four years ago, Facebook has changed its name and rebranded as Meta to focus the company on the metaverse. However, some commentators suspect the name change was meant for Facebook to distance itself from its ongoing legal troubles.
