Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify this week in a rare trial where shareholders are accusing Facebook of misusing user data. The case, valued at $8 billion, focuses on how the company managed privacy issues before and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The lawsuit claims that Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and other board members broke a 2012 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect user data. According to the investors, Facebook let third parties collect user information without proper consent, even after it promised to improve privacy protections.
Investors, including individuals and major groups like California’s State Teachers’ Retirement System, demand that Meta repay over $8 billion in fines and costs. This includes the massive $5 billion fine Facebook paid to the FTC in 2019 after the Cambridge Analytica data misuse came to light.
The trial, based on a Reuters report, will last around eight days and examine decisions made by Facebook’s top executives over the past ten years. The court will look into whether company leaders failed to do their duty in protecting user privacy.
Well-known figures such as Marc Andreessen, Reed Hastings, and Peter Thiel are also part of the case. They deny the accusations, saying the company spent significantly on privacy safeguards and that they were misled by Cambridge Analytica.
The lawsuit also accuses Zuckerberg of selling large amounts of company stock before the scandal became public. Shareholders argue that Zuckerberg knowingly earned over $1 billion, expecting the company’s value to drop once the story became public.