Mark Zuckerberg sued over data breach

Washington, May 24

The District of Columbia (DC) on Monday sued Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, seeking to hold him personally liable for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a privacy breach of millions of Facebook users' personal data that became a major corporate and political scandal.

Cambridge Analytica scandal

• Data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica gathered details on 87 million Facebook users without their permission
• Their data is alleged to have been used to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election
• The lawsuit says that Zuckerberg directly participated in important company decisions and was aware of the potential dangers of sharing users' data

DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed the civil lawsuit against Zuckerberg in DC 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.

Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook and has headed its board since 2012, controls more than 50 per cent 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 has a market value of over $500 billion. — AP

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