Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sued by Washington, DC AG

Washington D.C., First Published May 23, 2022, 7:50 PM IST

The Cambridge Analytica scandal returned to hang-out Meta aka Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with Washington District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A Racine announcing that his workplace is suing the social media behemoth's founder for his position in Fb's deceptive privacy practices and failure to protect tens of millions of customers' data.

The AG's case seeks to hold Zuckerberg accountable for his position in Fb violating the District's shopper protection laws by misrepresenting the protection of consumer information and their blatant disregard and misuse of delicate, personal information belonging to District residents.

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In a series of Tweets, Racine said: "Our investigation reveals extensive proof that Zuckerberg was personally concerned in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident."

The AG's criticism notes that 'Fb has turn out to be a wildly profitable and unique business, deriving enormous wealth from acquiring and monetizing the data of those billions of individuals leading their lives in Facebook's digital ecosystem.'

The complaint further claims that 'Facebook -- at Zuckerberg's route -- shifted its enterprise model on this approach because it acknowledged that it might be much more worthwhile if it might harness and promote the ability to dependably affect its customers' behaviour to 3rd events. Fb, subsequently, inspired (and, at times, teamed up with) builders and researchers to gather and analyze Facebook consumer knowledge in order that it may better learn how to manipulate its own users’ moods and affect what they purchase and even whether or not and how they vote.

Cambridge Analytica Case

In March 2018, whistleblower Christopher Wylie publicly revealed that an organization known as Cambridge Analytica -- a London-based electioneering firm -- exfiltrated the private knowledge of greater than 70 million Fb customers in the United States to be able to influence the results of the 2016 United States presidential election. 

This information trove included Fb customers’ ages, interests, pages they have appreciated, teams they belong to, physical areas, political affiliation, religious affiliation, relationships, and images, in addition to their full names, telephone numbers, and electronic mail addresses.

The private data of the more than 70 million US Facebook customers that Cambridge Analytica used to control the election accounted for more than half the full votes through the 2016 presidential elections, in an election that was effectively determined by only a few hundred thousand individuals. 

Three years later, Facebook and Zuckerberg publicly condemned Cambridge Analytica's data collection, which in response to AG Racine, solely demonstrates that what they are saying publicly is part of an intentional plan to mask the devastating consequences of their actions.

The Allegations

Specializing in the Cambridge Analytica case, the grievance accused Fb of actively encouraging corporations like Cambridge Analytica to make use of the platform to influence and manipulate consumer behaviour.

'What is most troubling is that Facebook looked into Cambridge Analytica and determined that it posed a threat to shopper data however selected to bury these issues quite than stop them, as that might have hurt Facebook’s (and Zuckerberg’s) backside line. Instead of coming clean, Fb continued to assist Cambridge Analytica win a United States presidential election,' the criticism mentioned.

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Final Updated May 23, 2022, 7:51 PM IST