DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed the civil lawsuit
against Zuckerberg in DC Superior Court. The lawsuit maintains that Zuckerberg
directly participated in important company decisions and was aware of the
potential dangers of sharing users' data, such as occurred in the case
involving data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica gathered details on as many as 87
million Facebook users without their permission. Their data is alleged to have
been used to manipulate the 2016 presidential election.
Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook and has headed its board
since 2012, controls more than 50 percent of Facebook'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 lawsuit
says. The social network giant has nearly 3 billion users worldwide. Meta has a
market value of over $500 billion.
Racine is seeking damages and penalties from Zuckerberg as
may be determined in a trial.
Meta Platforms spokesman Andy Stone declined to comment.
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is based in Menlo Park,
California.
Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple have been targeted in legal
actions in recent years by federal regulators and state attorneys general of
both parties accusing the tech behemoths of market dominance and abuse. But
Racine's suit brought the rare action of a regulator specifically aiming at a
Big Tech CEO.
Zuckerberg directly participated in decision-making that
allowed the massive data breach, while Facebook misled users with claims of
privacy protection, the suit alleges.
Racine tried last year to add Zuckerberg as a defendant in
his ongoing suit against Facebook over Cambridge Analytica from 2018. But a
D.C. Superior Court judge thwarted that attempt in March, saying that Racine
had waited too long to add him. “What value does it add to name him? There's no
more relief for the consumers of the District” of Columbia, Judge Maurice Ross
said.
Now, Racine is asserting that thousands of documents he has
since gained access to in the case establish Zuckerberg's direct participation
in decision-making on Cambridge Analytica, and he is therefore suing Zuckerberg
directly.
A year ago, Racine sued Amazon, accusing the online retail
giant of anticompetitive practices in its treatment of sellers on its platform.
The practices have raised prices for consumers and stifled innovation and
choice in the online retail market, he alleged. Amazon rejected the allegations.
That suit was dismissed by the court and Racine has asked
for it to be reconsidered.