Meta CEO Zuckerberg sued by DC AG over Cambridge Analytica scandal
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine says the Facebook founder was 'personally involved in failures' that led to the data breach
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Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine has filed a lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, claiming the Facebook founder should be held personally accountable for the data breach scandal involving now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ((AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) / AP Newsroom)
"We're suing Mark Zuckerberg for his role in Facebook’s misleading privacy practices and failure to protect millions of users’ data," Racine said in a statement Monday. "Our investigation shows extensive evidence that Zuckerberg was personally involved in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident."
The civil suit filed in the D.C. Superior Court accuses Facebook of violating the District's Consumer Protection Procedures Act through misleading and deceptive consumer data sharing policies, and seeks damages from Zuckerberg for allegedly failing to crack down on third-party data harvesting as the social media platform's CEO.
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Facebook revealed in 2018 that the personal information of some 87 million users might have been "improperly shared" with Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine speaks during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. (Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
According to Racine's complaint, "this data trove included Facebook users' ages, interests, pages they've like, groups they belong to, physical locations, political affiliation, religious affiliation, relationships, and photos, as well as their full names, phone numbers and email addresses."
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"In other words," the filing continues, "Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook Platform – in a way that Facebook and Zuckerberg encouraged – to influence and manipulate the outcome of a United States presidential election."
Meta declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by FOX Business.
The Facebook logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a Meta logo ((Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FB | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
This is not the first time Racine's office has attempted to go after Zuckerberg personally over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
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Earlier this year, the same court denied the attorney general's attempt to add Zuckerberg as a defendant in the District's original 2018 lawsuit against Facebook.
Fox News' Nicole Darrah contributed to this story.