Facebook is in trouble on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The British political consulting firm is alleged to have saved user information illegally. The company’s stock dropped dramatically last week, costing founder Mark Zuckerberg about $10 billion from his personal fortune, which is based on Facebook stock.
There is a campaign by users to drop the social media giant, #dropfacebook taking on increasing influence as a highly popular Twitter meme. Tesla founder Elon Musk deleted the car company’s Facebook page as well as his space companies’, and Cher called on her fans to join her in abandoning it.
On Friday in Houston, businessman Matthew Lodowski filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas on behalf of 50 million Facebook users, claiming a breach of trust.
“This was a huge breach of trust,” said Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg in a CNBC interview Friday. “People come to Facebook every day and they depend on us to protect their data.”
On Sunday Facebook ran full page ads apologizing to users in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and several British newspapers.
Cook County, Illinois became the first public entity to file suit against Facebook.