US attorney general sues Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg over alleged Cambridge Analytica data leak

Washington DC s attorney general has sued Mark Zuckerberg, seeking to hold Facebook co-founder personally responsible for his alleged role in allowing political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal data of millions of Americans during the 2016 election cycle.

The suit filed in the capital by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that Zuckerberg participated in policies that allowed Cambridge Analytica to unknowingly collect the personal data of US voters in a bid to help Donald Trump's election campaign.

In a news release, Racine said that this unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans personal information, and Mr Zuckerberg's policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook's wrongful conduct.

This lawsuit is not only necessary, but warranted and sends a message that corporate leaders, including chief executives, will be held accountable for their actions. Racine has previously sued Facebook's parent company, Meta, under the District of Columbia's Consumer Protection Procedures Act. The act makes individuals responsible for violations if they knew about them at the time.

The suit against Zuckerberg is based on hundreds of thousands of documents, including depositions of employees and whistleblowers, that have been collected as part of its ongoing litigation against Meta.

Since filing our landmark lawsuit against Facebook, my office fought tooth and nail against the company's efforts to resist producing documents and otherwise thwart our suit. Racine said that we continue to work and we have followed the evidence right to Mr Zuckerberg.

Racine charges that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a result of Zuckerberg's desire to open up Facebook to third party developers.

The suit alleges that Zuckerberg was aware of the risks of data leaks associated with the strategy. In one email about state leakage, Zuckerberg noted that there is a risk on the advertiser side, according to the lawsuit.

The suit states that Zuckerberg has served as chairman of Facebook's board since 2012 and controls about 60% of the voting shares.

Evidence shows that Mr Zuckerberg was responsible for Facebook's day-to- day operations, and had the clear ability to control the day-to- day operations at all times relevant to the lawsuit, Racine s office said in a statement.

As the Guardian revealed in 2018, Cambridge Analytica, hired by Trump's 2016 election campaign team, has access to the private data of 50 million Facebook users. The information could be used to identify different types of voters and influence their behavior, according to the company.

In the year 2019 Facebook was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission FTC for violating consumers' privacy. Critics of the fine said it did too little to change the company's behavior and that litigation should have been brought against Zuckerberg.