Mark Zuckerberg was sued by the attorney general for the District of Columbia Monday – a rare move against a prominent CEO meant to hold him personally liable for the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, which exposed millions of Facebook users’ personal data and became a major corporate and political scandal.
Karl Racine, the D.C. attorney general, filed the civil lawsuit against Zuckerberg on Monday in D.C. Superior Court.
The lawsuit maintains that Zuckerberg directly participated in important company decisions and was aware of the potential dangers of sharing users’ data, such as occurred in the case involving data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission.
Their data is alleged to have been used to manipulate the 2016 presidential election.
‘We’re suing Mark Zuckerberg for his role in Facebook’s misleading privacy practices and failure to protect millions of users’ data,’ Racine tweeted.
‘Our investigation shows extensive evidence that Zuckerberg was personally involved in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident.
‘This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary.
‘Misleading consumers, exposing their data, and violating the law come with consequences, not only for companies that breach that trust, but also corporate executives.’
Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook and has headed its board since 2012, controls more than 50 percent of Facebook’s voting shares and ‘maintains an unparalleled level of control over the operations of Facebook as it has grown into the largest social media company in the world,’ the lawsuit says.
The social network giant has nearly three billion users worldwide.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has a market value of over $500 billion.
Racine is seeking damages and penalties from Zuckerberg as may be determined in a trial.
This is an excerpt from The Daily Mail.
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