This week, Facebook responded to a legal proceeding relating to the Cambridge Analytica scandal by claiming it isn’t a social network and not somewhere you can make friends.
As Ars Technica reports, the lawsuit was filed in December last year by District of
Columbia (DC) attorney general
Karl Racine. It declared that
of the 70 million people who had personal data taken
by Cambridge Analytica, 340,000 were residents of DC. Racine is demanding $5,000 in civil
penalties per resident, which
might mean Facebook has
got to pay out $1.7
billion.
As you’d expect, the social network is fighting
the case hard. The explanation it’s taken so long for a response to be
forthcoming is as a result of Facebook
spent nearly seven months trying to get the legal proceeding dismissed. That isn’t happening because of a federal judge.
Facebook’s response is serious on the denials, with a
“denies the allegations” being stated for most of
the 76 paragraphs contained within the lawsuit filing. Curiously,
one flat out denial
covers Paragraph 11, which states:
To begin using the Facebook website, a client 1st creates a Facebook
account. The patron can then add other Facebook customers as “friends”
and by accumulating Facebook friends, the patron builds a social network on the Facebook website.
So Facebook is denying it’s a destination that enables customers to sign-up, adds their
friends, and builds a social network. I’m pretty certain that’s the practicality Facebook’s entire business model is based upon, which makes this a suspicious and
confusing response. Is this a lawyer that’s being a bit heavy handed with
copy-pasting a denial, or some plan
of action in law to
undertake and derail the lawsuit?
Overall, Facebook’s defense against this lawsuit comes down to the very fact it
absolutely was a third-party and not Facebook directly that
improperly obtained personal data.
If that isn’t accepted by the court, then the social network (yes, it’s one) may have to pay out billions, especially as this lawsuit is definitely solely going to be the first of the many if it proves successful.