The data scandal surrounding the company Cambridge Analytica now also has legal consequences for Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg: Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg personally on Monday.
He accuses him of being "directly" involved in decisions that would have enabled data abuse, while at the same time Facebook misled users with privacy promises.
"Zuckerberg has personally played a role in Facebook's failure to protect user privacy and data," Racine said.
Roland Lindner
Business correspondent in New York.
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Cambridge Analytica's data misuse, which became known in 2018, is one of the biggest scandals in Facebook's history.
The British company illegally obtained the data of 87 million Facebook users.
“This lawsuit is not only justified, it is necessary”
The lawsuit, filed Monday, is among the first attempts to hold Zuckerberg personally accountable for any misconduct by his company.
Attorney General Racine had tried other avenues before.
He previously filed a lawsuit against Facebook in connection with the scandal in 2018, and last year sought to add Zuckerberg as an additional defendant in that lawsuit.
But that was rejected by a judge, among other things, on the grounds that Racine had waited too long.
Instead, Racine has now filed a separate lawsuit.
In a statement, the Attorney General said: “This lawsuit is not only justified, it is necessary.
It sends a message that business leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions.” The lawsuit with Facebook, which began in 2018, has unearthed evidence that Zuckerberg had “direct oversight” over decisions that led to the data breach .
Facebook changed its name to Meta last year.