Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

Happy Birthday, Mark Zuckerberg: How much Meta CEO’s net worth has grown since the WhatsApp takeover

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, is celebrating his 40th birthday on May 14. Zuckerberg, one of the most influential figures in the tech industry, has had a major impact on how people connect and communicate around the world.

At 40, Zuckerberg continues to steer Facebook and its parent company, Meta, toward new technological frontiers.

Born on May 14, 1984, Zuckerberg has grown from a Harvard dropout into a billionaire philanthropist, owning several tech ventures over the years. He started Facebook in 2004 and took it public in 2012.

In 2021, the social media platform changed its name to Meta to shift the company’s focus to the metaverse. Under his leadership, Facebook has grown into a global platform with over 2.8 billion active users.

Beyond this, he has also expanded his influence through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is run by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan and focuses on philanthropy in health, education, and scientific research with an investment of 99 per cent of the couple’s wealth over their lifetime.

Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth:

The net worth of Mark Zuckerberg has grown significantly over the last few years. According to Forbes, his net worth stands at $177 billion, making him the fourth richest person in the world.

Since the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014 for $19 billion, his net worth has grown significantly. In 2014, his net worth was approximately $26.1 billion, which now stands at around $177 billion, reflecting a substantial increase in the net worth due to Meta’s expanding business and strategic acquisitions over the year.

Before turning 40, he gifted himself a brand-new superyacht, Launchpad in March 2024.

According to reports, Zuckerberg purchased $59 million worth of waterfront property on Lake Tahoe in California in 2019.

He spends his money on luxury vehicles and owns an Acura TSX, a Honda Fit, and a black Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Zuckerberg has led the acquisition of numerous businesses over the years, including Oculus VR, Instagram, WhatsApp, and several others.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mark Zuckerberg asks for patience after Meta’s AI push irks investors

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg is asking for investors to stay patient. Again.

After Meta Platforms Inc revealed that it will spend billions of dollars more than expected this year — fueled by investments in artificial intelligence — the company’s chief executive officer did his best to soothe Wall Street. The spending forecast, coupled with slower sales growth than anticipated, sent the shares tumbling as much as 19% in extended trading.

It was a familiar pitch for Zuckerberg, who has said before that the company’s futuristic technological bets will eventually pay off — and that savvy shareholders should stick around.

“Smart investors see that the product is scaling and that there is a clear monetisable opportunity there even before the revenue materialises,” he said during a conference call following Meta’s first-quarter earnings report. The company already credits AI for some of its recent user growth and advertising success, pointing to improvements within its recommendation algorithms.

The Facebook parent is plowing ever more resources into artificial intelligence, which requires significant investments in computing power — part of an arms race with rivals from Alphabet Inc. to Microsoft Corp. for supremacy in this fast-developing technology. Zuckerberg warned that the investments would increase “meaningfully” and take a long time to generate returns for the social networking company — perhaps years — but urged them to see the long-term benefits that AI has to offer.

Zuckerberg took a similar tack when Meta pivoted toward building the so-called metaverse and other futuristic technologies, like VR headsets and smart glasses. Those endeavors have been pricey. Reality Labs, the division inside Meta that is spearheading these efforts, lost $16 billion in 2023. But Zuckerberg says that advancements the group has made in the past year — especially its success with its AI chatbot and Ray-Ban smart glasses — has given him confidence that further investment is necessary.

“We’ve gotten more optimistic and ambitious on AI,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re at a place where we’ve shown that we can build leading models and be the leading AI company in the world. And that opens up a lot of additional opportunities beyond just ones that are the most obvious ones for us.”

Achieving that vision will be expensive. The Menlo Park, California-based company raised its estimates for costs for the year and now believes capital expenditures will be $35 billion to $40 billion. Earlier, it estimated expenses related to things like servers, AI hardware and data centers would be $30 billion to $37 billion.

“We expect capital expenditures will continue to increase next year as we invest aggressively to support our ambitious AI research and product development efforts,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said in a statement, referring to 2025.

At the same time, the social networking company also projected second-quarter sales of $36.5 billion to $39 billion, with the midrange of that forecast less than analysts’ average estimate.

Those metrics overshadowed what was otherwise a solid first quarter, with revenue of $36.5 billion, an increase of more than 27% over the same period a year ago. Profit that more than doubled to $12.4 billion.

The stock had been up 39% so far this year at market close and was trading near all-time highs for the past month, in part reflecting excitement around AI. Meta was one of the best-performing stocks among its Big Tech peers.

“For all Meta’s bold AI plans, it can’t afford to take its eye off the nucleus of the business — its core advertising activities,” Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in a note on Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean ignoring AI, but it does mean that spending needs to be targeted and in line with a clear strategic view.”

In the previous quarter, Meta announced a $50 billion stock buyback, in addition to the company’s first-ever quarterly dividend. It was an effort to placate investors frustrated by the company’s aggressive spending on technologies that have yet to fully pay off.

In recent months, Zuckerberg has made AI a priority, refocusing Meta on the technology after OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, sparking a frenzy of competition and development among the big tech companies. Meta has started inserting AI into every facet of the business, from Instagram and Facebook to its smart glasses.

The company announced plans for a new $800 million data center in January, and is also developing its own chips for artificial intelligence services. Meta is also working on several new iterations of its large language model, known as Llama, for powering chatbots and other AI services.

The company reiterated its broader 2024 spending plans, saying it will shell out $96 billion to $99 billion for the calendar year, up slightly from a low-end target of $94 billion to $99 billion. It previously said that much of that would go toward infrastructure costs in addition to long-term bets on augmented and virtual reality.

Meta’s mixed report comes on the same day that President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that would force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd., to sell the popular video service or face a ban in the US. The potential elimination of a major competitor could give a boost to Meta’s advertising business since its short-video offering Reels is a clone of TikTok.

Reels now makes up about 50% of the time that people spend on Instagram, Li said on a call with analysts. When asked specifically about the TikTok legislation, she said it was too soon for the company to understand the potential impact.

Meta has had a turbulent past few years, with a Covid-era bump in users and activity on the platform during lockdowns followed by a subsequent pullback in advertising in 2022. Meta also gorged on hiring when times were good, leading to some 10,000 job cuts in 2023, a period Zuckerberg dubbed the “year of efficiency.”

Those painful moves paved the way for the significant increase in profit the company is seeing now. First-quarter revenue was the highest ever in that period. More people are also returning to Meta’s products.

Zuckerberg said the Threads app, similar to the former Twitter and launched last July, now has more than 150 million monthly active users — including Taylor Swift.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mark Zuckerberg’s base salary is $1 but other income is $24.4 million

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg holds the distinction of being Meta’s lowest-paid employee, at least on paper. In 2023, his base salary was a modest $1, a stark contrast to the $379,000 median income for other employees at the tech giant, Fortune reported.

When compared to the broader tech industry, where salaries typically range from $35,000 to $120,000 depending on the role (according to Indeed), Zuckerberg’s $1 salary seems even more symbolic.

However, don’t let the nominal base pay fool you. Despite not taking home a bonus, Zuckerberg’s compensation still amounted to millions for the company. In a proxy filing statement released before the annual shareholder meeting in May, it was revealed that the Facebook founder received $24.4 million in “other compensation”, a significant portion of which covered his security expenses.

Zuckerberg’s security costs, attributed to what Meta described as a “year of efficiency”, have seen fluctuations. In 2023, Meta disclosed an increase in his personal security pre-tax allowance by 40%, from $10 million in 2018 to around $14 million. This news came shortly after the company laid off 11,000 employees, leading to speculation about a possible link between the two events.

Also read: Mark Zuckerberg avoids personal liability in Meta addiction suits

Despite subsequent rounds of job cuts at Meta, Zuckerberg’s spending on security has slightly decreased. In 2022, he spent $14,829,245 on personal security, including at his residences and during personal travel. In contrast, during Meta’s “year of efficiency” in the following year, his security expenses totalled $9,431,139. This compensation also included nearly $1 million for the “costs related to personal usage of private aircraft.”

Meta justified these substantial costs by citing “specific threats” to Zuckerberg due to his prominent role as the face of the company. They noted that negative sentiment toward Meta often gets associated with Zuckerberg personally. The company stated in the filing, “Mr Zuckerberg is one of the most recognised executives in the world, largely due to the size of our user base and our continued exposure to global media, legislative, and regulatory attention.”

Regarding his salary, Zuckerberg has been part of the “dollar salary club” since 2013, alongside figures like Larry Page, Larry Ellison, and the late Steve Jobs. This club signifies individuals who receive a nominal $1 salary. Over more than a decade, Zuckerberg has earned just $11 in salary.

Despite his minimal official salary, Zuckerberg’s wealth has surged. In February, his net worth increased by $28 billion in a single day following Meta’s strong fourth-quarter results. Despite a year of cost-cutting measures, including the dismissal of approximately 21,000 employees, Meta doubled its operating margin to 41% and reduced expenses by 8% year over year.

According to Bloomberg data, due to Meta’s successful turnaround, which is largely attributed to Zuckerberg’s stake in the company, he has surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s third-richest person. As of April 23, Zuckerberg’s net worth is $176 billion, a substantial increase from around $78 billion a year earlier.

Also read: Leaked emails reveal why Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mark Zuckerberg avoids personal liability in Meta addiction suits

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg won his bid to avoid personal liability in about two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media companies of addicting children to their products.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the cases, sided with the Meta chief executive officer in a ruling issued on Monday. The decision dismisses Zuckerberg as an individual defendant without affecting claims against Meta as a company.

Lawsuits filed on behalf of young people have alleged that Zuckerberg was repeatedly warned that Instagram and Facebook weren’t safe for children but ignored the findings and chose not to share them publicly.

Rogers ruled that Zuckerberg was not required to disclose safety information absent a “special relationship” with the users of Meta’s products, according to the order.

The judge also said Zuckerberg couldn’t be held liable just because he’s the public face of Meta. Finding otherwise would create “a duty to disclose for any individual recognizable to the public,” Rogers wrote in the ruling. “The court will not countenance such a novel approach here.”

Rogers said the Meta users and family members who sued can amend and refile their complaints. At a hearing in February, the judge appeared sympathetic to plaintiffs’ arguments that Zuckerberg could be held liable for personally concealing information as a corporate officer at Meta.

A Meta representative and an attorney for the plaintiffs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The cases naming Zuckerberg are a small subset of a collection of more than 1,000 suits in state and federal courts by families and public school districts against Meta along with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, and Snap Inc., owner of the Snapchat platform.

Rogers allowed some claims to proceed against the companies while dismissing others. The companies have denied wrongdoing, saying they have taken steps to keep young users safe on the platforms.

The case is In Re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, 22-md-03047, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Months after knee surgery, Mark Zuckerberg reminds us why we shouldn’t miss the leg day

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared an update on his post-surgery recovery and said he has started to get his ‘strength back’. Zuckerberg, 39, underwent knee surgery in November last year after he tore his ACL sparring during a training session for a competitive mixed martial arts (MMA) fight.

He shared a video on Instagram in which he is doing the leg press at the gym.

“5 months post-surgery. My recovery is going well and starting to get strength back. Looking forward to easing back into training over the coming months. Appreciate all the love and support,” Zuckerberg wrote in the caption.

In the comment section, many of his followers cheered for him and wished him a speedy recovery.

“Bro is coming back to the scene super caked up. You love to see it,” one person commented, while another one wrote, “Zuck got the Thoroughbred legs (pause) glad to see u progressing back! god is good!”

A third person wrote, “May the sun bless you with health, knowledge and wisdom to make the right decision with your physical health, mental health and spiritual health so you can always make the right decisions.”

In November 2023, Zuckerberg shared a few photographs of himself on a hospital bed after he underwent surgery after a critical knee injury while training for an MMA competition in early 2024.

“Tore my ACL sparring and just got out of surgery to replace it. Grateful for the doctors and team taking care of me. I was training for a competitive MMA fight early next year, but now that’s delayed a bit. Still looking forward to doing it after I recover. Thanks to everyone for the love and support,” he wrote earlier.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a strong band of tissue which connects the thigh bone to the shin bone.

Before tearing his ACL, the Meta CEO took part in the BJJ Tour competition, according to reports.

At the event, he won a gold medal and a silver medal.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Elon Musk’s fresh challenge to Mark Zuckerberg, says ready to fight ‘anywhere anytime’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk reignited his feud with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, challenging him to a fight “anywhere, anytime, with any rules”.

Musk declared his willingness to fight with Zuckerberg in response to a post on social media platform X.

This came after an X user shared a conversation with a tourist guide discussing the much-hyped Musk vs Zuckerberg fight.

“|After the tour, I asked the tour guide about the Elon vs Zuck fight and he laughed and said, ‘That’s something we would love to see’. He then proceeded to bring up and briefly talk about dogecoin so I tipped him some doge afterwards. It was absolutely amazing,” the user wrote.

In reply, Musk revived discussions about his rivalry with Zuckerberg that began in 2023.

He wrote, “I’m ready to fight Zuck anywhere, anytime, with any rules. LFG!!!”

After the tour, I asked the tour guide about the Elon vs Zuck fight and he laughed and said “That’s something we would love to see”.

He then proceeded to bring up and briefly talk about dogecoin so I tipped him some doge afterwards.

It was absolutely amazing. pic.twitter.com/B2Jit8OaID

— Sir Doge of the Coin ⚔️ (@dogeofficialceo) March 5, 2024

Musk’s response to the user witnessed a lot of mixed comments from others.

“The colosseum and tickets paid in dogecoin would be epic!” one user wrote, while another one added, “Zuck already won, Elon. Look at $Meta stock compared to $Tsla. He not only one, he put you in an X induced coma”.

A third user added, “Anyone encouraging this should be added to the list of: “people who don’t have your back and want to watch you be a spectacle for their own amusement”.

A proposed fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg was among the most talked about topics last year, with many reports claiming that the tussle might take place inside a cage in Italy, while the whole fight would be live-streamed on Meta and X platforms. However, that never materialised and later Zuckerberg said it was “time to move on”.

“If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously,” Zuckerberg posted on Threads back then.

As per reports, the public rivalry between them intensified after the success of Meta’s Threads platforms in July.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WhatsApp introduces new ‘search by date’ feature for easier chat navigation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Popular messaging platform WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature to make navigating through chats simpler than ever before. The ‘Search by Date’ feature makes it easier to find messages, media, links, and documents shared on a specific date within a chat. This feature aims to enhance the overall user experience by providing a more efficient way to revisit important information or conversations.

In a press note, WhatsApp announced that users could now select a date and skip to messages sent from that date onwards. This feature will be particularly helpful for users who need to quickly locate a specific message or piece of information within a chat without having to scroll through months’ worth of messages.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the news of the feature’s launch via his WhatsApp channel. The feature is now available for all users globally across Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Web platforms. It was initially spotted in beta testing back in November 2023, and after successful testing, it is now being rolled out to all users.

To use the ‘Search by Date’ feature, users need to open the desired individual or group chat that they wish to search. They can then click on the three dots in the top right corner on Android phones or tap the contact or group name on iOS devices. After clicking the regular Search option, users will find a small calendar with a search symbol. By selecting the desired date on the pop-up calendar, users can instantly navigate to messages from that day within the chat.

For example, if a user wants to revisit a message from October 19, 2023, they can select that date on the pop-up calendar. The chat or group will then open directly to messages from that day, allowing users to scroll up or down the chat as needed.

In addition to the ‘Search by Date’ feature, WhatsApp recently introduced four new text formatting options globally – bulleted points, numbered lists, block quotes, and inline quotes. These new options complement the existing formatting options of bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace text.

Furthermore, WhatsApp is reportedly working on a feature that will allow users to share a QR Code with others to add them as contacts, as per WABetaInfo. Currently, users have to navigate to the settings to find their QR Code. With the upcoming feature, users will be able to see their QR Code in chats as a shortcut, making it easier to share it with anyone.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Zuckerberg meets LG, Samsung chiefs in South Korea as Meta looks to bolster its AI ambitions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed cooperation on extended reality devices with LG Electronics executives on Wednesday as part of his visit to South Korea that highlights Meta’s ambitions in artificial intelligence.

South Korea is the second leg of Zuckerberg’s three-nation Asian tour that observers say is meant to discuss partnerships with tech powerhouses and forge good relations with business and government leaders in the region. He already visited Japan and will travel to India later this week.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg met LG Electronics CEO William Cho for two hours to talk about business strategies for extended reality — known as XR — device development, LG said in a statement.

While experiencing Meta’s latest virtual-reality headset, the Quest 3, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Cho “expressed a keen interest in Meta’s advanced technology demonstrations, notably focusing on Meta’s large language models and its potential for on-device AI integration,” the LG statement said.
LG is ramping up its strategic collaboration with Meta, aiming to expedite its XR ventures, it said. XR includes augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and other related technologies.

Later Wednesday, Zuckerberg met Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, according to local media. He is scheduled to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday.

“Meta already collaborated with high-end sunglasses brand Ray-Ban to launch smart glasses last year. Just like this, Meta could possibly want to introduce their XR technology to a worldwide customer base of a global consumer electronics maker like LG,” said Kim Yang Paeng, a technology analyst at the Korea Institute of Economics and Technology.

Kim said Zuckerberg will also likely talk with Samsung about producing Meta-exclusive chips to ease its reliance on the AI chip market-dominant NVIDIA.

Zuckerberg’s visit to Asia comes as Meta ramps up its efforts in artificial intelligence amid a race involving technology firms OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. In a Instagram reel in January, Zuckerberg said that it was Meta’s “long term vision to build general intelligence, open source it responsibly, and make it widely available so everyone can benefit.”

Meta is building massive compute infrastructure — equivalent to 600k NVIDIA H100 GPUs’ worth — to support its artificial intelligence plans as it begins training its Llama 3 generative AI model, he said in the reel. Generative AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Meta’s Llama 3 are artificial intelligence systems that can generate content based on user prompts.

Lee Tae-kyu, an expert at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said Meta would think cooperation with Samsung and LG is important as they are top-level tech companies outside the United States. Samsung and LG, on the other hand, would also highly value partnerships with Meta, whose products target customers around the world.

During his visit to Tokyo, Zuckerberg met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and later told reporters: “We had a good productive conversation about AI and the future of technology, and I am really excited for the work that is happening here in Japan.”

He was in Japan with his family for a trip that mixed business with pleasure. He went skiing with his family, visited a McDonald’s outlet and learned how swords are made at a swordsmiths near Tokyo.

During his visit to India, he will attend a wedding ceremony for the son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, head of the oil and technology conglomerate Reliance Industries.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Meta’s Zuckerberg seeks out of lawsuits blaming him for Instagram addiction

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg is seeking to avoid being held personally liable in two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media companies of addicting children to their products.

The Meta chief executive officer is set to make his case at a hearing Friday in California federal court. A ruling in Zuckerberg’s favor would dismiss him as a personal defendant in the litigation with no impact on the allegations against Meta.

Holding him personally responsible may be a challenge because of a corporate law tradition of shielding executives from liability, especially at larger companies where decision-making is often layered. A victory against the billionaire who launched Facebook with friends as a Harvard undergraduate two decades ago could encourage claims against other CEOs in mass personal injury litigation.

Zuckerberg faces allegations from young people and parents that he was repeatedly warned that Instagram and Facebook weren’t safe for children but ignored the findings and publicly stated the opposite was true. Plaintiffs contend that as the face of Meta, Zuckerberg has a responsibility to “speak fully and truthfully on the risks Meta’s platforms pose to children’s health.”

“With great power comes great responsibility,” plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a court filing, quoting the Spider Man comics in a footnote. “Unfortunately, Mr. Zuckerberg has not lived up to that maxim.”

Zuckerberg, the world’s fourth-richest person as of Thursday, has argued that he can’t be held personally responsible for actions at Meta just because he’s the CEO. As for the statements made by Zuckerberg himself, his lawyers claim that they were generalised or covered by the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection of free speech and that Zuckerberg didn’t have a duty to disclose the safety findings that were allegedly reported to him.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, who is overseeing the cases, has asked lawyers on both sides to clarify about how laws covering negligent misrepresentation and corporate officer responsibility vary among individual states.

The cases naming Zuckerberg are a small subset of a collection of more than 1,000 suits in state and federal courts by families and public school districts against Meta along with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, and Snap Inc. Rogers recently allowed some claims to proceed against the companies while dismissing others.

Zuckerberg, who is Meta’s most significant shareholder and maintains sole voting control at the company, is also at risk of being held personally liable in a separate 2022 lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal brought by the attorney general of the District of Columbia in Washington.

Pinning blame on an executive for unlawful conduct typically hinges on showing their involvement in relevant day-to-day decisions or their knowledge of the practices at issue. It’s generally easier to assign executive liability at smaller companies, where an individual’s direct participation in decision-making can be clearer. At large companies, liability comes down to proving control over decision-making.

Lawyers for Zuckerberg didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Social media companies have come under increased scrutiny for their impact on young people’s mental health and role in spreading sexually explicit content. At a Senate hearing last month, US Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, pressed Zuckerberg on whether he should personally compensate victims of sexual exploitation online. Zuckerberg then offered a rare apology to the victims’ families.

The case is In Re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, 22-md-03047, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow