The District of Columbia has filed new litigation against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for his role in the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data misuse scandal - accusing him of having proof that he was individually and directly responsible for failures that culminated in the scandal.

The District claims CPPA and attempts to hold Zuckerberg personally liable for failing to protect users' information from being extracted by a data analysis company that some of the tech giant's own employees referred to as "sketchy" in an internal email in 2015 — though Facebook did not suspend Cambridge Analytica's account until years later, after the scandal went global.

The suit further claims that Facebook deceived consumers into thinking that their information was safer in its hands.

The District said it obtained information on Zuckerberg through discovery in another litigation it had filed against the company now known as Meta, back in December 2018 – also Cambridge Analytica-related.

Washington, D.C. Attorney General sues Facebook over Cambridge Analytica scandal

Infamously, the data analysis company sought the information of Facebook users in an attempt to predict voter habits with a view to running targeted ads in support of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign — again, doing so without most of the users' knowledge or consent.

When the news became global scandal in 2018, the pummeling had gone against Facebook's stock price and led the company to claim that it would undertake a series of reforms and privacy audits but though the tech giant has been less vocal on detailing any follow-up.

An inquiry into the matter by the UK's data protection monitor resulted in a fine of £500k mid 2018, which was later to be settled between Facebook and the authorities: they agreed on a deal wherein Facebook paid up without admitting the claims.

It also settled with the FT,C in July 2019, which had been investigating whether the scandal violated a 2012 consent decree under which Facebook had promised to exercise better privacy protection of user data — with the tech giant paying $5BN for what some industry watchers warned looked akin to a 'get out of jail card' for its senior execs.

At the time, two dissenting FTC commissioners criticized the settlement as giving Facebook's leading executives blanket immunity related to their role in the scandal — and broad immunity for known and unknown violations.
So it's basically been left to States' AGs to pursue public interest litigation over the scandal-including trying to press a complaint against Facebook's founder himself.

Our investigation uncovered significant evidence that Zuckerberg himself knew about failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal," tweeted attorney-general Karl Racine today, announcing the new suit.

"This lawsuit is warranted and required. Deceiving consumers, compromising their data, and breaking the law have consequences, not only for companies violating that trust but also corporate leaders," he added.

NEW We're suing Mark Zuckerberg for his role in Facebook's misleading privacy practices and failure to protect millions of users' data.

Our investigation produces broad evidence that Zuckerberg was involved in particular failures that led to the Cambridge Analytica incident.

— Archive: AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) May 23, 2022

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Whether this latest Cambridge Analytica complaint will gain traction in court remains to be seen.

The District of Columbia wanted Zuckerberg added as a named defendant to its earlier litigation last year but had its request dismissed in March by a Superior Court judge-another reason perhaps it has filed the new complaint.

The earlier litigation has bogged down over battles over jurisdiction and discovery disputes.

Meta was contacted for comment on AG Racine's latest litigation announcement. However, spokesman Andy Stone declined comment immediately.

Facebook Settles with FTC: $5 billion and new privacy guarantees

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