The Cambridge Analytica scandal is now several years old. Nevertheless, the data scandal could still have repercussions for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Attorney General of Washington D.C. wants to hold him personally responsible.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal has cost Facebook dearly. And not just financially – the social network’s image has also suffered quite a bit from the data scandal.
Now the hubbub surrounding the scandal is boiling up again. This time, the focus is on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Attorney General of Washington D.C. has filed a lawsuit against him.
Cambridge-Analytica: The lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg in detail
Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington D.C., has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg. He accuses him of failing to protect millions of users’ data.
He believes Mark Zuckerberg “personally played a role in Facebook’s failure.” He also alleges that Facebook misled its users with false privacy promises.
Racine accuses Zuckerberg of being “directly” involved in the decisions that later led to the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
Zuckerberg personally played a role in Facebook’s failure to protect users’ privacy and data.The consequences of the scandal for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg
Record fine: Facebook has already had to pay for billions of US dollars
Facebook has already had to dig deep into its pockets several times thanks to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In the US, the company paid a record fine of five billion US dollars in 2019.
The company was also asked to pay up in the UK. Here followed a fine of 500,000 pounds for violations of the GDPR.
Now Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is also to answer for the data scandal. According to the Washington D.C. Attorney General, the lawsuit is “not only justified, but necessary.” That’s because CEOs must be held accountable for their actions, he said.
According to Racine, there is evidence that Mark Zuckerberg “was personally involved in Facebook’s failure to protect the privacy and data of its users.”
What was the Cambridge Analytica scandal about again?
The British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica tapped millions of Facebook user data in the 2010s. This data was then used for political advertising, among other things, without the consent of those affected.
Cambridge Analytica collected data via the app “This Is Your Digital Life” and created psychological profiles. In the process, the personal data of the Facebook friends of these users was also tapped.
The data analyzed was used, among other things, in the 2016 US election campaign for the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Cambridge Analytica is also said to have fiddled around in the Brexit referendum.
The numbers of data tapped in the process was immense. While the British consulting firm spoke of 30 million Facebook profiles, the social network later announced a much larger number. According to the report, the data of potentially more than 87 million users was accessed.
