Zuck, Sandberg, and Thiel Skate Free From Testifying After Settlement in Meta Privacy Suit

An $8 billion shareholder lawsuit against Meta over the Cambridge Analytica scandal ended in an undisclosed settlement on Thursday. The settlement, which came at the last minute as a trial was getting underway, saved high-ranking members of Meta’s board from having to testify under oath about their roles in those alleged violations.

The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2018, asked the defendants to use billions of their personal wealth to compensate for the financial damages it accused them of inflicting on the company due to the privacy scandal, Reuters reports. The defense said that the lawsuit offered “extreme claims” and denied the allegations, the outlet writes.

On Thursday, as the trial was set to continue, a settlement was announced by Sam Closic, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. France24 reports that the agreement “came together quickly” and spared past and present Meta board members from having to testify under oath before the court. Those board members included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, both of whom have played pivotal roles at the company. Sheryl Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and left its board last year, would have also had to testify. Had the settlement not been reached, Andreessen would have begun his testimony on Thursday.

The tail of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has obviously been long. The scandal, the events of which occurred in 2016 and involved violations of Facebook’s privacy policy by a defense contractor specializing in psychological warfare, first made headlines all the way back in 2017. Since then, the company has weathered ongoing controversy, terrible press, and lawsuits. It was also the beginning of a rough string of years for the company, with other controversies—like the Facebook Papers—popping up during the same period. Amidst these various scandals, Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. In the end, it’s still a massively profitable company that arguably faces less oversight under the second Trump administration than it ever has before.

A trial could have shed further light on the internal workings of Meta, as well as the leadership decisions surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its fallout. The details of the settlement were not shared in court. Gizmodo reached out to Meta for more information. Reuters has reported that a representative for the defendants declined to comment.