Settlement in Meta Privateness Go well with Spares Board Members Zuck, Sandberg, and Thiel From Testifying

An $8 billion shareholder lawsuit in opposition to Meta over the Cambridge Analytica scandal led to an undisclosed settlement on Thursday. The settlement, which got here on the final minute as a trial was getting underway, saved high-ranking members of Meta’s board from having to testify beneath oath about their roles in these alleged violations.

The lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2018, requested the defendants to make use of billions of their private wealth to compensate for the monetary damages it accused them of inflicting on the corporate because of the privateness scandal, Reuters reports. The protection mentioned that the lawsuit supplied “excessive claims” and denied the allegations, the outlet writes.

On Thursday, because the trial was set to proceed, a settlement was introduced by Sam Closic, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. France24 reports that the settlement “got here collectively shortly” and spared previous and current Meta board members from having to testify beneath oath earlier than the courtroom. These board members included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in addition to enterprise capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, each of whom have performed pivotal roles on the firm. Sheryl Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and left its board final 12 months, would have additionally needed to testify. Had the settlement not been reached, Andreessen would have begun his testimony on Thursday.

The tail of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has clearly been lengthy. The scandal, the occasions of which occurred in 2016 and concerned violations of Fb’s privateness coverage by a protection contractor specializing in psychological warfare, first made headlines all the way in which again in 2017. Since then, the corporate has weathered ongoing controversy, horrible press, and lawsuits. It was additionally the start of a tough string of years for the corporate, with different controversies—like the Facebook Papers—popping up throughout the identical interval. Amidst these varied scandals, Fb changed its name to Meta in 2021. Ultimately, it’s nonetheless a massively worthwhile firm that arguably faces much less oversight beneath the second Trump administration than it ever has earlier than.

A trial may have shed additional gentle on the interior workings of Meta, in addition to the management selections surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its fallout. The small print of the settlement weren’t shared in courtroom. Gizmodo reached out to Meta for extra data. Reuters has reported {that a} consultant for the defendants declined to remark.