Cambridge Analytica Deal Averts Zuckerberg Deposition

Facebook has agreed to settle a lawsuit over enabling Cambridge Analytica to access the private data of millions of users, a deal that will let Mark Zuckerberg avoid answering up to six hours' worth of questions for a deposition. A court filing entered late Friday asks for 60 days for the final terms, which were not disclosed, to be hammered out, the Verge reports. The chief of executive of Meta, Facebook's parent company, and departing executive Sheryl Sandberg, faced a Sept. 20 deadline on the depositions, per the AP.

Users sued Facebook in 2018 after reports that the company violated consumer privacy regulations by sharing personal data with Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and other third parties, per Politico. US regulators fined Facebook $5 billion in 2019. "Facebook has proved that they are prepared to pay almost any sum of money to avoid their executives answering these questions," said Carole Cadwalladr, a journalist who investigated both companies for the Observer, citing the FTC fine and the tentative settlement. "The truth will come out one day," she added, per the Guardian, "but today is not that day." Cambridge Analytica went defunct in 2018. (More Facebook stories.)