Karl Racine accuses Facebook co-founder of direct knowledge of policies
that allowed firm to gather data of millions of Americans
Washington DC’s attorney general has sued Mark
Zuckerberg, seeking to hold the Facebook co-founder personally
responsible for his alleged role in allowing the political consultancy
Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal data of millions of Americans during the 2016 election cycle.
The
suit, filed in the capital by the District of Columbia attorney
general, Karl Racine, alleges that Zuckerberg directly participated in
policies that allowed Cambridge Analytica to unknowingly gather the personal data of US voters in an attempt to help Donald Trump’s election campaign.
“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,” Racine said in a news release.
“This
lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that
corporate leaders, including chief executives, will be held accountable
for their actions.”
Meta declined to comment.
Racine
has previously sued Facebook’s parent company, Meta, under the District
of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act. The act makes
individuals responsible for violations if they knew about them at the
time.
The suit against Zuckerberg is based on
hundreds of thousands of documents, including depositions from employees
and whistleblowers, that have been collected as part of its ongoing litigation against Meta.
“Since
filing our landmark lawsuit against Facebook, my office has fought
tooth and nail against the company’s characteristic efforts to resist
producing documents and otherwise thwart our suit. We continue to
persist and have followed the evidence right to Mr Zuckerberg,” said
Racine.
Racine charges that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a result of Zuckerberg’s desire to open up Facebook to third-party developers.
The
suit alleges Zuckerberg was aware of the risks of data leaks associated
with the strategy. In one email discussing state leakage Zuckerberg
noted “there is clear risk on the advertiser side,” according to the
lawsuit. …
Yeah so the Big Think is literally owned by big oil. They’re making shit up so people feel too exhausted to fight for any change. Ignore this kind of environmental nihilism, all it does it help the rich avoid change.
