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 haunt Meta aka Fb CEO Mark Zuckerberg with Washington District of Columbia Lawyer Common Karl A Racine asserting that his workplace is suing the social media behemoth's founder for his position in Fb's deceptive privacy practices and failure to guard thousands and thousands of users' data.

The AG's case seeks to hold Zuckerberg accountable for his role in Fb violating the District's consumer safety legal guidelines by misrepresenting the protection of consumer data and their blatant disregard and misuse of delicate, private knowledge belonging to District residents.

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In a collection of Tweets, Racine stated: "Our investigation exhibits in depth evidence that Zuckerberg was personally concerned in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident."

The AG's grievance notes that 'Fb has grow to be a wildly profitable and unique enterprise, deriving monumental wealth from acquiring and monetizing the information of those billions of people leading their lives in Fb's digital ecosystem.'

The complaint further claims that 'Fb -- at Zuckerberg's direction -- shifted its business mannequin in this method as a result of it recognized that it could be even more worthwhile if it may harness and promote the power to dependably affect its users' behaviour to 3rd parties. Facebook, therefore, encouraged (and, at times, teamed up with) developers and researchers to gather and analyze Fb consumer data in order that it might better learn to manipulate its personal users’ moods and influence what they buy and even whether and how they vote.

Cambridge Analytica Case

In March 2018, whistleblower Christopher Wylie publicly revealed that a company known as Cambridge Analytica -- a London-based electioneering firm -- exfiltrated the private information of greater than 70 million Fb customers in the US with a view to affect the results of the 2016 United States presidential election. 

This information trove included Fb customers’ ages, interests, pages they have preferred, teams they belong to, physical places, political affiliation, religious affiliation, relationships, and photographs, in addition to their full names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

The personal knowledge of the more than 70 million US Fb customers that Cambridge Analytica used to control the election accounted for more than half the entire votes during the 2016 presidential elections, in an election that was effectively determined by just a few hundred thousand folks. 

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

The Allegations

Focusing on the Cambridge Analytica case, the criticism accused Fb of actively encouraging companies like Cambridge Analytica to use the platform to affect and manipulate shopper behaviour.

'What's most troubling is that Fb looked into Cambridge Analytica and decided that it posed a danger to consumer information however chose to bury those concerns rather than cease them, as that would have harm Facebook’s (and Zuckerberg’s) backside line. As a substitute of coming clear, Fb continued to help Cambridge Analytica win a United States presidential election,' the grievance said.

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Last Up to date Could 23, 2022, 7:51 PM IST