Meta board and Mark Zuckerberg face $8 billion trial over user data misuse allegations

A high-stakes trial opened on Wednesday as shareholders of Meta Platforms brought an $8 billion lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders, accusing them of failing to uphold their legal duty to safeguard Facebook users’ data in breach of a 2012 agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The case, being heard in Delaware’s Chancery Court before Chief Judge Kathaleen McCormick, centres on claims that the defendants knowingly permitted Facebook to mislead users about how their data was being handled, particularly in the run-up to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.