The $8 billion lawsuit filed against Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook’s parent company Meta, for violating the privacy of users of the world’s largest and most widely used social media platform Facebook, is currently pending.
The formal trial of the case began today (July 17) in the Chancery Court of the US state of Delaware. If Zuckerberg loses the case, he will have to pay the plaintiffs about $8 billion in damages.
The indictment in the case states,
During the 2016 US presidential election and some important elections in Europe, US and European political consulting firms misused the personal information of hundreds of Facebook users.
The indictment also states,
Mark Zuckerberg and his company Meta secretly sold this important information to those consulting firms, which deeply violated the privacy policies of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
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It is worth noting that Meta (then Facebook) was registered as a listed company with the FTC in 2012. The FTC is the main plaintiff in the case, but in addition to the FTC, some victims of data theft have also participated in the case personally.
Some of the plaintiffs testified last Monday and today, Thursday.
According to court sources, two key witnesses in the case – Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg – will testify next week.
The outcome of this case is being considered a long-awaited precedent in the technology world, especially in the field of social media and data protection. It raises new questions about the security of Facebook users’ personal information and the responsibility of technology companies around the world.
Analysts say that if the allegations in the case are proven, it will be an important milestone in policymaking in the technology sector.
Source: Dhaka Post
