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| Facebook paid billions to protect Zuckerberg |
Facebook shareholders have filed a lawsuit alleging that board members be fined $5 billion to protect CEO Mark Zuckerberg from a single lawsuit.
Shareholders in the lawsuit alleged that the company agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $5 billion to end its investigation into the data breach, in exchange for the agency dropping its plans to separately appoint the company's general manager.
Both groups of litigants alleged that the company's board of directors agreed to reach a multi-billion dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to directly protect Zuckerberg, the company's founder and largest shareholder in the FTC. Pay the claim. Take personal responsibility and even testify.
Internal discussions between Facebook board members were cited in the lawsuit filed in Delaware court last month.
In February 2019, the commission included Facebook and Zuckerberg as individual defendants in the draft lawsuit.
The Federal Trade Commission has not published such plans. Two Democrats voted against the deal, saying Zuckerberg should take personal responsibility.
A group of contributors claimed that the FTC never revealed its original plan to name Zuckerberg himself in the lawsuit. At the time, two Democrats in the agency voted against the settlement, also because the CEO was not personally responsible.
Facebook spends $5 billion to protect Zuckerberg
According to the company, the penalty is about $100 million. But the company agreed to pay $5 billion to avoid firing Zuckerberg or Shirley Sandberg and to avoid liability to the CEO.
The $5 billion settlement is the result of a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Democratic committee members said the deal wouldn't produce the results it wanted, forcing the company to improve privacy and other issues.
Since then, data protection has been an issue for the company and its other platforms. and areas such as disinformation, harassment and double standards for elite users.
One shareholder said: “The board never seriously considered Zuckerberg's unlimited powers, but empowered, defended and pulled billions of dollars out of the company's coffers to solve the problem.
The lawsuit shows that the company has not escaped the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Senate Commerce Committee said last week it was investigating the company's research into teen mental health over Instagram.