The Attorney General of the District of Columbia, Karl Racine, has sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal concerns Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor who collected personal information from nearly 270,000 Facebook users and friends without their consent. Kogan then passed the information on to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company.
The lawsuit alleges that Zuckerberg is “directly responsible” for the lax privacy rules that allowed the consulting firm to collect user data without consent.
The lawsuit also accuses the CEO of not informing users immediately and failing to ensure the deletion of the data.
“This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans’ personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook’s wrongful conduct. This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions,” Racine said in a statement.