Recently, Mark Zuckerberg and various current and former directors of Meta Platforms reached an agreement to settle a claim asserting $8 billion in damages due to violations of Facebook users’ privacy.
Details about the settlement weren’t disclosed, and the defense attorney refrained from addressing Judge Cataline McCormick of the Delaware Chancery Court. Notably, McCormick postponed the trial right at the beginning of its second day and offered her congratulations to both sides.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, Sam Krosik, this agreement came together rather swiftly.
Billionaire investor Mark Andreessen, who was among the defendants, was expected to testify on Thursday.
Shareholders of Meta have expressed hopes that former officials, including Zuckerberg and Andreessen, could still be held accountable for significant fines and legal expenses that the company has incurred in recent years.
In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission imposed fines on Facebook after discovering that the platform was not adhering to a prior 2012 agreement regarding user data protection.
The shareholders aimed to make eleven defendants use their personal assets to reimburse the company, which the defendants refuted as “extreme allegations.”
In a rebranding move, Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021, though the company itself was not a defendant in this situation.
Neither the company nor the defendants’ attorney provided immediate comments when requested.
Jason Kint, a content provider’s trade group head, remarked that while the settlement might bring some relief, it misses a chance for broader accountability.
Zuckerberg had taken the stand on Monday and was scheduled to do so again on Wednesday, with the trial expected to continue through next week.
Various testimonies were anticipated, including those from Peter Thiel, a former Facebook board member, and Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix.
This case is connected to previous revelations about Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political consulting firm linked to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, which accessed data from millions of Facebook users. Those revelations led to the FTC fines at the time.
Meta investors contended that board members, both former and current, did not adequately oversee compliance with the 2012 FTC agreement, alleging that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were essentially running an illegal data collection operation.
Expert witnesses for the plaintiffs discussed what Facebook describes as “gaps and weaknesses” in its privacy policy, though they did not determine whether Facebook violated the earlier FTC agreement.
On Wednesday, former board member Jeffrey Zience testified that he had not agreed to an FTC fine that would relieve Zuckerberg of liability, contrary to shareholder claims.
Meta claimed on its website that it has invested billions into user privacy protection since 2019.
This trial presented a rare moment for Meta investors to see Zuckerberg respond to inquiries about the investigation under oath. A previous court appearance was anticipated in 2017 concerning lawsuits by investors unhappy with plans for special classes of Facebook shares designed to enhance Zuckerberg’s control, but the case settled before he took the stand.
Instead of addressing the broader issues tied to the “surveillance capitalist business model” and data sharing, Kint critiqued that Facebook has shifted the narrative of the “Cambridge Analytica” incident to focus solely on a few individuals, leaving the larger conversation unresolved.
