Facebook parent Meta Platforms agreed Friday to settle a class action lawsuit seeking damages for allowing British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica access to the private data of tens of millions of Facebook users. The settlement will spare CEO Marc Zuckerberg an embarrassing court appearance to defend his company.
Lawyers acting for the plaintiffs and for Facebook filed a joint request with the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, asking the judge to put the class action on hold for sixty days while the two parties finalized a written settlement for an as-yet undisclosed amount. The high profile lawsuit has been running for over four years and claims that Facebook shared data of millions of US voters with Cambridge Analytica.