According to techcrunch, Washington, D.C., has just announced a new lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of his role in the Cambridge analysis company's Facebook data abuse - claiming that it has evidence that the Facebook founder personally participated in the failure that led to the incident.
The district accused Zuckerberg of violating the consumer protection procedure act (CPPA) and sought personal accountability for his failure to protect Facebook users' information from a data analysis company, which some employees of the technology giant called "hasty" in an internal email in 2015 - although Facebook did not suspend Cambridge analysis's accounts until a few years later after the scandal spread around the world.
The lawsuit also claimed that Facebook misled consumers into believing that their information was safe in their hands. According to the complaint document, the district said that it obtained evidence related to Zuckerberg through evidence collection in another lawsuit filed against the company now known as meta in December 2018 - also related to Cambridge analysis.
The data analytics company is notoriously trying to extract Facebook users' information and predict voters' habits in order to put targeted ads in support of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign - without the knowledge or consent of most users.
When the story became a global scandal in 2018, it hit Facebook's share price and led the company to claim that it would conduct a series of privacy audits and reforms. Although the technology giant has little voice in detailing any follow-up action.
The UK data protection watchdog's investigation led to a fine of £ 500000 in mid-2018, which later became a settlement. Facebook paid the fine but did not admit responsibility.
In July 2019, it also reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has been reviewing whether the scandal violated the consent act of 2012, under which Facebook promised better privacy protection for user data - the technology giant warned some industry observers that it looked like a "prison card" for its senior executives.
At that time, two dissenting FTC members attacked the settlement agreement, saying it gave Facebook executives comprehensive immunity related to their role in the scandal and gave the company extensive immunity from known and unknown violations.
Therefore, it is basically the Attorney General of each state who has filed a public interest lawsuit against the scandal - including an attempt to file a complaint against Facebook founder Zuckerberg.
"Our investigation shows that there is a lot of evidence that Zuckerberg was personally involved in the failure of the Cambridge analysis," Karl Racine, Attorney General of Washington, D.C., announced the new lawsuit on twitter on Monday.
"This lawsuit is not only justified, but also necessary." "Misleading consumers, exposing their data, and the consequences of violating the law are not only for companies that violate this trust, but also for corporate executives," he added
It remains to be seen whether Cambridge analytics' latest complaint will make progress in court.
Last year, Washington, D.C. tried to list Zuckerberg as the designated defendant in its early proceedings, but in March, a high court judge rejected the request - which may explain why it has now filed a new complaint. Previous proceedings were delayed by disputes over jurisdiction and disputes over evidence.
Meta was asked to comment on the latest lawsuit announcement of attorney general Racine in Washington, D.C., but spokesman Andy stone declined to comment immediately.