The scandal surrounding the disclosure of Facebook user data is entering the next round. Back in 2018, then Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was supposed to be held personally accountable in the Cambridge Analytica case, and now he has actually been charged.
This is not the first time that US investigators have targeted Mark Zuckerberg. Back in 2021, the Washington Attorney General's Office attempted to add Zuckerberg to a lawsuit filed against Facebook in 2018. The allegation: he had misinformed Facebook users about the disclosure of their data. However, the judge rejected the application. Now the new attempt.
What happened?
The cause of the lawsuit dates back four years. In 2018, the Observer and the NY Times uncovered what was probably the biggest data scandal in Facebook history. In focus: scientist Aleksandr Kogan. For a scientific study, Kogan launched a survey on Facebook using a quiz app - and forwarded the data collected to the now insolvent data analysis company Cambridge Analytica. Not only were the profiles of the quiz participants analyzed, but also the personal data of their friends. A total of around 87 million users were affected. A violation of Facebook's contractual guidelines, which prohibit the transfer of data to third parties.
The role of Zuckerberg
For the first time since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal came to light, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is now facing legal repercussions. The lawsuit filed on May 23, 2022 by Karl Racine - the Attorney General of Washington D.C. - is the first attempt to hold Zuckerberg personally accountable for his company's misconduct. According to new findings, he was directly involved in decisions that led to the data scandal, Racine said. And: The loose data protection rules created by Zuckerberg made such a scandal possible in the first place. Facebook only restricted the amount of data that could be viewed by external app developers after the incident came to light. Too late, argues the Attorney General's Office. Now the courts must clarify Zuckerberg's responsibility.
