Shareholders say company leaders failed to protect user data and want them to pay damages

July 17, 2025 | JournosNews.com

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and several current and former company leaders are facing a major trial over their handling of Facebook user data.

The $8 billion lawsuit, brought by Meta shareholders, began this week in Delaware’s Chancery Court. It accuses company executives of failing to protect user privacy, violating a 2012 agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Who’s Involved

The trial is being heard by Chief Judge Kathaleen McCormick. Several well-known figures are expected to testify, including:

• Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO
• Sheryl Sandberg, former COO
• Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and board member
• Peter Thiel and Reed Hastings, former board members
• Jeffrey Zients, Biden’s current White House Chief of Staff and a former Meta board member

Zients is one of the first people scheduled to take the witness stand.

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal

This case comes from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a political consulting firm accessed data from millions of Facebook users without their permission.

Cambridge Analytica had worked with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, leading to major public backlash. In 2019, Facebook paid a $5 billion fine to the FTC for breaking its earlier promise to protect user data.

Shareholders Want Money Back

Shareholders claim that Meta’s top executives didn’t do enough to prevent the data breach and failed to oversee user privacy properly. They say this lack of action cost the company billions in fines and legal fees.

Now, they want the people responsible to repay those costs—more than $8 billion in total.

The lawsuit also accuses Zuckerberg of knowing about the privacy issue before it became public. It claims he sold some of his Facebook stock ahead of the scandal and made over $1 billion as a result.

Meta Leaders Deny the Claims

The defendants strongly deny the accusations. They say Facebook was tricked by Cambridge Analytica and that the company hired experts to follow the FTC’s privacy rules.

They also say Zuckerberg followed a pre-planned stock trading schedule that kept him from controlling when shares were sold, helping to avoid insider trading.

A lawyer for the defendants declined to comment. Meta itself is not being sued in this case and has not issued a statement. The company has said in the past that it has spent billions to improve user privacy since 2019.

A Rare Type of Case

This trial is the first of its kind in Delaware—accusing company board members of knowingly failing to protect user data.

Legal experts say these types of claims are very hard to prove under Delaware corporate law, which usually protects directors unless there is clear evidence of wrongdoing.

Source: CNN – Facebook privacy practices the focus of $8 billion trial targeting Zuckerberg

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