Mark Zuckerberg is set to take the witness stand this week in a high-stakes, $8 billion trial where Meta shareholders accuse the Facebook founder and other top executives of failing to stop the illegal harvesting of user data—a case rooted in the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The trial, opening Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware, marks a rare courtroom showdown over corporate accountability in the tech world. It centers on whether Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and board members like Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings breached a 2012 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by allowing Facebook to continue mishandling user data.
Shareholders, including major pension funds like California’s State Teachers’ Retirement System, say Meta (formerly Facebook) should be reimbursed more than $8 billion in damages, including the record $5 billion FTC fine levied in 2019 after the data scandal came to light. Though Meta itself isn’t a defendant, its leadership faces sharp scrutiny over decisions made in the years following the FTC deal.
The lawsuit stems from revelations in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, had harvested personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users without consent.
Shareholders allege that Zuckerberg knowingly allowed Facebook to continue deceptive privacy practices even after signing the FTC settlement. They argue the company’s leadership failed their fiduciary duty by not enforcing proper oversight—one of the most difficult claims to prove under corporate law.
“This is a case involving alleged wrongdoing on a truly colossal scale,” Judge Travis Laster said when he allowed the case to move forward in 2022. The trial will be overseen by Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Zuckerberg and other defendants have denied all allegations, describing the claims as “extreme.” They argue that Facebook invested heavily in privacy compliance after the FTC deal and was itself misled by Cambridge Analytica. The company says it brought in independent firms to monitor data handling and created internal teams dedicated to privacy oversight.
Still, the plaintiffs contend there’s evidence showing Zuckerberg and other leaders were aware of violations and failed to act. They also claim Zuckerberg personally benefited by selling stock shortly before the Cambridge Analytica story broke, avoiding financial losses and earning over $1 billion—an accusation the defense says is baseless, citing pre-set trading plans and philanthropic motives.
While much of the trial will focus on boardroom decisions made a decade ago, it arrives at a time when Meta is under renewed scrutiny for how it handles user data—particularly as it trains its AI systems on massive pools of online content.
“This case will shine a light on what Facebook’s top leadership really knew and when they knew it,” said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next. “At a time when so much of our digital lives run through Meta’s platforms, the question is simple: Can we trust Mark Zuckerberg?”
The trial is expected to last eight days.
