The District of Columbia Attorney General is suing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over his alleged role in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.
According to the new lawsuit, the framework on Facebook that allowed Cambridge Analytica to collect user data without consent was carried out by the CEO, and that he had the ability to control daily operations.
This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans' personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg's policies enabled a multi-year effort to deceive users.
The lawsuit was filed after a judge rejected the attempt to add Facebook's CEO to the consumer protection complaint. It was the first time a U.S. regulators had named a person in a complaint.
During a March hearing, the judge took issue with the length of time the office took to add Facebook to the case and argued that it would not add value to D.C. consumers. The judge said the timing of the move was almost bad faith.
The initial lawsuit against the company alleges that Facebook failed to protect users' data in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cambridge Analytica used Facebook's third-party access to collect information about users without their consent.
In an interview with CNBC shortly after the dismissal of his attempt to add Zuckerberg to the complaint, Racine said his office needed more time to collect evidence from the company and become confident that the CEO should be held personally responsible for the alleged consumer. The time it took for his office to conclude it had the required information to name him was extended by Facebook's slow evidence disclosure.
The evidence shows that Mr. Zuckerberg was involved in the misrepresentations around user privacy.
A Meta spokesman wouldn't comment on the lawsuit.
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