Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sued by Washington, DC AG

Washington D.C., First Printed Could 23, 2022, 7:50 PM IST

The Cambridge Analytica scandal returned to haunt Meta aka Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with Washington District of Columbia Legal professional Normal Karl A Racine saying that his office is suing the social media behemoth's founder for his function in Facebook's deceptive privacy practices and failure to protect millions of users' knowledge.

The AG's case seeks to carry Zuckerberg accountable for his position in Facebook violating the District's consumer safety legal guidelines by misrepresenting the protection of user knowledge and their blatant disregard and misuse of sensitive, private data belonging to District residents.

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In a sequence of Tweets, Racine stated: "Our investigation reveals intensive evidence that Zuckerberg was personally involved in failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident."

The AG's grievance notes that 'Facebook has become a wildly profitable and unique business, deriving huge wealth from buying and monetizing the data of those billions of people main their lives in Facebook's digital ecosystem.'

The grievance additional claims that 'Fb -- at Zuckerberg's route -- shifted its business model in this manner because it acknowledged that it may very well be even more worthwhile if it could harness and promote the power to dependably influence its customers' behaviour to 3rd events. Fb, subsequently, encouraged (and, at occasions, teamed up with) builders and researchers to collect and analyze Fb person knowledge in order that it might higher learn to manipulate its own customers’ moods and influence what they purchase and even whether and how they vote.

Cambridge Analytica Case

In March 2018, whistleblower Christopher Wylie publicly revealed that an organization known as Cambridge Analytica -- a London-based electioneering agency -- exfiltrated the non-public knowledge of more than 70 million Fb users in the US in order to influence the outcomes of the 2016 United States presidential election. 

This knowledge trove included Fb users’ ages, interests, pages they have appreciated, groups they belong to, bodily locations, political affiliation, non secular affiliation, relationships, and pictures, as well as their full names, cellphone numbers, and e mail addresses.

The private knowledge of the greater than 70 million US Facebook users that Cambridge Analytica used to govern the election accounted for more than half the overall votes through the 2016 presidential elections, in an election that was successfully decided by just some hundred thousand people. 

Three years later, Fb and Zuckerberg publicly condemned Cambridge Analytica's knowledge collection, which in accordance with AG Racine, solely demonstrates that what they say publicly is part of an intentional plan to mask the devastating consequences of their actions.

The Allegations

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

'What is most troubling is that Fb regarded into Cambridge Analytica and decided that it posed a risk to consumer knowledge but selected to bury those considerations moderately than cease them, as that could have hurt Facebook’s (and Zuckerberg’s) backside line. As an alternative of coming clear, Facebook continued to assist Cambridge Analytica win a United States presidential election,' the complaint said.

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Last Updated May 23, 2022, 7:51 PM IST