Zuckerberg sued for alleged role in Cambridge Analytica data-slurp scandal

[erronis]

Source: The Register

Cambridge Analytica is back to haunt Mark Zuckerberg: Washington DC's Attorney General filed a lawsuit today directly accusing the Meta CEO of personal involvement in the abuses that led to the data-slurping scandal.

DC AG Karl Racine filed [PDF] the civil suit on Monday morning, saying his office's investigations found ample evidence Zuck could be held responsible for that 2018 cluster-fsck. For those who've put it out of mind, UK-based Cambridge Analytica harvested tens of millions of people's info via a third-party Facebook app, revealing a – at best – somewhat slipshod handling of netizens' privacy by the US tech giant.

That year, Racine sued Facebook, claiming the social network was well aware of the analytics firm's antics yet failed to do anything meaningful until the data harvesting was covered by mainstream media. Facebook repeatedly stymied document production attempts, Racine claimed, and the paperwork it eventually handed over painted a trail he said led directly to Zuck.

Fast forward to this week, and in announcing he's suing Zuckerberg, Racine on Monday said: "This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions."

Actual filing: https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/2022.05%20%283%29.pdf


Read more: https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/23/zuckerberg_sued_for_his_role/

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "data-slurp"

What a term!

[erronis]

2. The Register is well known for its witticisms and british humour (?)

[BumRushDaShow]

3. ...

[Scrivener7]

4. Excellent! Didn't think we'd ever see this. Hope it goes somewhere.

What Cambridge Analytica did was abuse and attack on hundreds of millions of Americans, and yet it has just faded away.

[WhiteTara]

9. it gave us Tom Cotton and tfg

[Firestorm49]

13. And meanwhile we wait patiently, as we are told to do, for the outcome of the Gaetz mess.

So if you think that anything will crimp Zuckerberg's style, you’ve got a long wait ahead.

[Botany]

5. Zuckerberg and Facebook paid a 5 billion $ fine for using C.A. to rat fuck the 2016 elections too

Because if you read anything on Facebook about HRC and her emails in 2016 you were reading
reading highly targeted Russian disinformation. Zuckerberg was well aware of what was happening
in 2016 too.

Link to tweet

[erronis]

15. Great video - thanks! "Without facebook we would not have won."

[orangecrush]

6. Facebook is insiduous

Another monopoly.

[PSPS]

7. The purloined data was used to target specific demographics and neighborhoods to sway their votes

In many cases, the intent was to simply demoralize voters to keep them from even voting. There were very thorough documentaries done by the BBC, The Guardian, etc., on this back then. Cambridge Analytica even boasted of their success with the US 2016 election as well as UK's Brexit in their presentations to prospective clients.

[Scrivener7]

8. And they accessed ALL of the data on hundreds of millions of Americans without their permission.

A few thousand answered a survey. Then CA went into all their contacts. Then they went into all THEIR contacts, and so on, until they had the data on virtually every American voter on Facebook.

Then they tranched them and trolled them and manipulated them.

All of it without the user's permission, and all of it with FULL permission from Facebook.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. I would have thought that the Cambridge Analytica scandal would have finished him

But we know that most people don't follow the news...

[DonCoquixote]

11. you sold your soul zuck

and the very people you solid it to are the one that want to pick you apart because you are not blasting GOP propaganda loudly enough. You may hate the Democrats' for holding you to account for your power, but the GOP will gut you like a fish.

[niyad]

12. Just checked the wiki entry for Cambridge Analytica, since I see no reference

to the mercers or bannon in the OP. Turns out they were/are even more disgusting than I thought.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. K&R