According to Yahoo News, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear as a witness this week in an eight billion dollar trial. Shareholders of Meta Platforms sued Zuckerberg and other executives in Delaware court. They claim company leaders violated a 2012 Federal Trade Commission agreement to protect user data.

The case stems from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal that exposed millions of Facebook user profiles. The political consulting firm accessed data from 87 million users without consent. Cambridge Analytica used this information to target voters during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Shareholders want Zuckerberg to reimburse Meta for over eight billion dollars in fines and costs. This includes a record five billion dollar FTC penalty imposed in 2019. Other defendants include former COO Sheryl Sandberg, board member Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings.

Why This Trial Matters

This case represents the most difficult claim in corporate law according to legal experts. Shareholders must prove directors utterly failed in their oversight duties. Delaware law protects directors from bad business decisions but not illegal ones.

The trial will examine decade-old board meetings and privacy policies. Plaintiffs claim Zuckerberg continued deceptive practices after the 2012 FTC agreement. They also allege he sold over one billion dollars in stock before the scandal became public.

Meta argues it built compliance teams and hired outside firms for oversight. The company maintains Cambridge Analytica deceived Facebook about its data collection methods. This represents the first trial of its kind for director oversight claims.

Industry Privacy Enforcement Reaches New Heights

The Meta trial coincides with escalating global privacy enforcement against major tech companies. The Hacker News reports that European privacy groups threaten new lawsuits against Meta in 2025. The company faces challenges over AI training on user data across European Union jurisdictions.

Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems sent cease and desist letters to Meta regarding AI data collection. His organization claims Meta violated GDPR rules by requiring opt-out instead of opt-in consent. European regulators cleared Meta to proceed with AI training but reserved rights to review the program.

These concurrent legal battles reflect growing scrutiny of tech company data practices. The Delaware trial tests whether executives can be held personally liable for privacy violations. Meanwhile, international regulators pursue companies for ongoing data collection activities. This dual enforcement approach creates unprecedented pressure on social media platforms.

Further Reading

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