A Delaware judge has sanctioned Sheryl Sandberg, former COO and board member of Meta, for allegedly deleting emails linked to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. The ruling stems from a case initiated by Meta shareholders against Sandberg and former board member Jeff Zients in late 2022.
Delaware judge sanctions Sheryl Sandberg over email deletions
The plaintiffs claimed that Sandberg and Zients utilized personal email accounts to discuss matters related to a 2018 shareholder lawsuit. This lawsuit accused Facebook leaders of breaching legal obligations and fiduciary duties by failing to adequately protect user privacy. Additionally, the plaintiffs alleged that both former board members deleted emails from their personal accounts, despite a court instruction to preserve such communications.
The judge highlighted compelling evidence regarding these allegations in a decision issued on Tuesday. According to the ruling, “the defendants disclosed Sandberg’s personal Gmail account, maintained under a pseudonym, that she used to ‘communicate about matters potentially relevant to the claims and defenses in this action.’” The judge further noted that Sandberg’s legal counsel provided vague responses during interrogatories, implying that rather than using an auto-delete function, Sandberg selectively chose which emails to erase.
As a result of the sanctions, the judge heightened the legal standard for Sandberg’s affirmative defense to requiring her to demonstrate her case with “clear and convincing” evidence, in contrast to the easier burden of “preponderance” of evidence. Furthermore, the judge awarded certain expenses to the plaintiffs.
A spokesperson for Sandberg told TechCrunch that the plaintiffs’ claims were baseless, asserting, “All work emails were preserved on Facebook’s servers.”
This legal dispute is rooted in allegations that Meta officials violated a 2012 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order, which mandated that the company cease the unauthorized collection and sharing of Facebook users’ personal data. The allegations included claims that Facebook sold this data to commercial partners, such as Cambridge Analytica, and removed required disclosures from privacy settings.
In 2019, Meta agreed to pay $5 billion to the FTC to settle accusations of violating the 2012 order. The company has faced additional regulatory penalties in Europe.
Featured image credit: Leader Biography
