Investors sue Meta over Facebook privacy violations, demanding $8 billion in compensation

A lawsuit has begun in Delaware against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former executives of the company over a 2018 Facebook user data leak linked to data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, The Associated Press reports.

Investors accuse Meta management of failing to warn about the risks of misuse of users' personal data. The lawsuit states that Facebook systematically violated a 2012 agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission that prohibited the collection and transfer of data without users' consent.

Meta has already paid $5.1 billion in fines to the Federal Trade Commission, $725 million to users in a privacy lawsuit, and has also been fined by the EU as a result of the scandal. Investors are now demanding that the company compensate for these costs at the expense of management.

University of Washington professor Neil Richards has already testified in court, saying that “Facebook’s privacy claims were misleading.” Former Meta board member Jeffrey Zients also testified and acknowledged that the FTC settlement was “the best of the worst.”

Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg are also expected to testify. The trial is expected to last at least until the end of next week, with a decision likely to be months away.

Meta tried to overturn the case through the US Supreme Court, but it upheld the appeals court's decision to continue the proceedings.