Washington (AP) The privacy crisis involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting business has prompted the Supreme Court to permit a multibillion-dollar class action investor case against Facebook parent company Meta to move forward.
In an attempt to end the lawsuit, Meta presented arguments to the court in November. They came to the conclusion on Friday that they were mistaken to pursue the case in the first place.
The company’s appeal was denied by the top court, but an appellate decision permitting the lawsuit to proceed was left in place.
Investors claim that Meta failed to fully explain the dangers of Cambridge Analytica, a company that backed Donald Trump’s first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016, abusing Facebook users’ personal information.
Investors claim that after the public discovered the scope of the privacy problem, the company’s shares saw two notable price declines in 2018 due to inadequate disclosures.
FILE – The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Image courtesy of J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
Meta has already achieved a $725 million privacy settlement with users and paid a $5.1 billion fine.
Steve Bannon, a political strategist for Trump, was connected to Cambridge Analytica. It had purchased access to around 87 million Facebook users’ personal data from a Facebook app developer. During the 2016 campaign, U.S. voters were targeted using that data.
The case is one of two class-action lawsuits against tech giants that are being heard by the high court. In addition, the justices are debating whether to dismiss a class action lawsuit against Nvidia. Investors claim that the business deceived them about how it relied on selling computer processors to mine erratic cryptocurrencies.
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