Mark Zuckerberg has More Problems; Lawsuit Over Cambridge Analytica
The Attorney General of the District of Columbia has decided to include Mark Zuckerberg in the investigation of the Cambridge Analyica scandal. Facebook Inc. CEO was allegedly „personally involved” in decisions related to the company.
- Mark Zuckerberg as defendant in the investigation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal;
- According to prosecutors in Washington, Facebook's CEO was "personally involved" in the procedure for sharing user data;
- Facebook strongly denies all charges.
Mark Zuckerberg was included in the investigation against Facebook in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The creator of the world's largest social network received the status of the defendant by the decision of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia (Washington) - Karl Racine. He informed about his decision via Twitter:
Source: https://twitter.com/AGKarlRacine/status/1450787572112838658
Recall that this is about an investigation that has been going on against Facebook since 2018. That's when the information that Cambridge Analytica possessed data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts in the US came to light. The data obtained from unknowing users was supposed to help predict the outcome of the 2015 US presidential election, and to benefit Donald Trump, who was running for office at the time.
The attorney general's office is accusing Facebook (and now, it should be added, also Zuckerberg) of providing false information regarding the sharing of personal data, which led to the privacy of people using Facebook being compromised. The prosecution decided to include the role of the company's CEO after, in Karl Racine's own words, "reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages of documents produced in litigation and gathering a wide range of testimony, including from former employees." It's unclear what Mark Zuckerberg's exact involvement in the case was, but according to the prosecutor, he was "personally involved".
A Facebook spokesperson has vehemently denied these allegations, saying they are baseless (via The Verge):
"These allegations are as meritless today as they were more than three years ago, when the District filed its complaint. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously and focus on the facts.”
The opinion of Mark Zuckerberg himself is not yet known, but it can be assumed that we will receive an official statement from him soon.
