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Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook-owner Meta, is being sued by the US District of Columbia over the Cambridge Analytica leaks that compromised the personal data of millions.
Attorney-General Karl Racine filed a civil lawsuit against Mr Zuckerberg in DC Superior Court, making him personally liable for the privacy breach of millions of Facebook users’ personal data.
The Cambridge Analytica leaks, which were exposed to the public by a former employee in March 2018, gathered details of up to 87 million Facebook users without their permission. The leaks then became a major corporate and political scandal as the data was alleged to have been used to manipulate the 2016 presidential election.
The lawsuit maintains that Mr Zuckerberg directly participated in important company decisions and thus was aware of the potential dangers of sharing users’ data such as the case involving the data-mining firm.
Because of his direct participation in decision-making, the lawsuit alleges that Mr Zuckerberg allowed the massive data breach while misleading users with claims of privacy protection.
According to the lawsuit, Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook and has headed its board since 2012, controls more than 50 per cent of the company’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 social network giant has nearly three billion users worldwide, with its owner Meta valued at more than $US500 billion ($A705 billion).
In line with the lawsuit, Attorney-General Racine is seeking damages and penalties from Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, Meta spokesman Andy Stone declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Meta, along with Google, Amazon and Apple, have been targeted in legal actions in recent years by federal regulators and state attorneys-general accusing the tech behemoths of market dominance and abuse.
But Attorney-General Racine’s suit brought the rare action of a regulator specifically aiming at a big tech CEO.
Attorney-General Racine previously tried to add Mr Zuckerberg as a defendant in his ongoing suit against Facebook over Cambridge Analytica, but a Superior Court judge thwarted that attempt by saying that he had waited too long to add the company’s founder.
Now, Attorney-General Racine is asserting thousands of documents he has since gained access to in the case establish Mr Zuckerberg’s direct participation in decision-making in Cambridge Analytica.
A year ago, Attorney-General Racine sued Amazon for anti-competitive practices in its treatment of sellers on its platform.
The lawsuit alleged that Amazon’s unethical practices have raised prices for consumers and stifled innovation and choice in the online retail market, which the company rejected.
That lawsuit was then dismissed by the court and Attorney-General Racine has asked for it to be reconsidered.
With AAP
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
