Friday night court filings add to Facebook's horrible terrible week. Judge stepped in and ran over FB affirming expectations on negligent discovery: 1) production of Zuckerberg's notebooks 2) discovery of Zuckerberg/Sandberg 3) details on FB's secret whitelisting data deals
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4) production of 9 plaintiffs' data in Facebook's possession - ALL OF IT (more on this in a second) 5) more depositions 6) production of Facebook's "secret sauce" memo (all revisions)
now some details...
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On the plaintiffs' data ordered for discovery, Facebook's legal team has tries to argue they only have to turn over the data which is accessible or shared. Read what the Judge said about this back to Facebook confirming this is Facebook's position. Which leads naturally to... /3
This entire exchange between the Court and Facebook's legal team (Ms Stein) is something, "it must be that Facebooks collects additional information which is does not want to produce to the named plaintiffs." /4
You can see how Facebook tried to suggest the only data they have to turn over is what is in the "social graph" and "Download Your Information" file. But clearly there is more. With backs against wall, they then argue it's "extraordinarily difficult to find all of it." 👀 /5
If it's too hard ... too difficult ... to pull all of the data Facebook has on a user data protection authorities are all leaning in harder (California/Europe). Even Facebook's own employee isn't signing this section on "sharing data" during deposition... /6
The plaintiff attorneys who are super good and technical jumped all over all of this reminding Court data reciprocity is included in the case and Facebook also "possesses data from data brokers" in addition to inferred data. They want it all, Court rules it's all relevant. /7
"We want a response [from Facebook] admitting that, as well, and an order so that we can tell the jury they took so much data from these nine people they can't even identify it. They don't know where it is, they don't know how it was used." 👀/8
Facebook was also ordered to turn over its communications and audits Zuckerberg promised Congress under oath. Court ordered none of these are privileged since Facebook told the world they would do the investigation to make sure their products were safe. /9
Facebook also filed motion Friday asking to seal the names of two firms that conducted their audits. For some reason, FB really, really doesn't want the world to know who cleaned up the other potential Cambridge Analyticas who have Facebook's user data. /9
These audits are all called the "ADI" (app developer investigation) and it appears there are a whole lot of communications which aren't privileged. AG in Massachusetts also pushed to get these so you've got to expect this is how they will get turned over. /10
These are part of Cambridge Analytica cover-up lawsuits. Facebook successfully wrote a narrative why CA didn't matter but the reality has always been it very much did due to (1) cover-up (securities/governance) and (2) consumer protection (platform was designed to leak). /11
And I'll leave the final words to the Court from their filing last night. Facebook "is far from completing document production. Despite orders from Judge Corley and the Special Master" and the Judge writing this order... /12
"At every turn, Facebook has disparaged Plaintiffs' discovery requests and their efforts to get the information they need. This is a false narrative, belied by the results of Plaintiffs' motions before Judge Corley and the Special Master." /13
This is NdCal (Case No. 18-md-02843-VC-JSC). Gibson Dunn is defending Facebook - not used to being pushed around like this. There was a filing in DC Friday, too, for a parallel case where Court has also lost patience with FB's delay tactics ordering deposition of Zuckerberg. /14
Adding this Order by the Court for this Thursday's NdCal hearing for Facebook's cover-up of Cambridge Analytica related matters threaded above. /15
Incoming... this also just posted. An order from Special Master for case. "MANO" stands for Make America Number One. There's long been questions on extent of Facebook's involvement working alongside Cambridge Analytica employees and campaign. Unlikely much is privileged. /16
Same case, third key filing in like 72 hours. Special Master has ordered the following plaintiff data to be turned over. The question here will be whether Facebook can avoid turning over any user data it has harvested to "tune" its algorithms that's not on the "front end." /17
fwiw, Facebook interrupted hearing then successfully motioned to have the two firms sealed who did their "unprecedented" audits of all potential Cambridge Analyticas. But they came out in a DC lawsuit earlier this week - FTI Consulting and Stroz Friedberg - but shhhhh.... /18
Adding this post as it includes the consultants who worked on the "audits" for Facebook to try to identify where else its data flowed across the universe. Some interesting backgrounds and experience. /19
Bingo. Facebook just filed answer to riddle of which Facebook executive is being sent in response to the Court's order - as the Judge said any other plans should be postponed. It's one of their senior legal execs who has been there more than a decade. /20
Gibson Dunn on behalf of Facebook names the executive but then goes on a six page rant arguing it hasn't delayed and deflected discovery. This paragraph is the most absurd failing to point out facebook covered-up the core issues until 2018 when the lawsuit was then filed. /21
And this order from the Special Master just posted. Everyone/everything in yellow is in a very sensitive position related to the extent of Cambridge Analytics-like abuse of data (and the cover-up). I am telling you...it's getting hot in California. Watch this space. /22
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Friday night KA-boom. In adtech antitrust lawsuit against Google, court has ordered the state AGs may depose Google co-founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai. Huge. /1
So the two cited reasons Pichai will be deposed (although not all of them) are incredibly sensitive. 1), “Jedi Blue,” the alleged collusion with Facebook that everyone wrongly wrote off back earlier in this lawsuit. Google CEO Pichai met directly with Facebook CEO Zuckerberg. /2
A reminder the Google and Facebook deal (aka the “NBA” or “Jedi Blue”) is also in a private antitrust suit against Facebook. The deal was signed by the lieutenants of the CEOs (Sheryl Sandberg for Facebook). /3
US v Google flooded docket (103 filings!) over weekend as Court said Friday...hey now, let's skip summary judgment, this baby is going to trial. Much is companies trying to keep their secrets sealed but we get a sense for the witnesses. And a small taste of evidence to come. /1
On the companies filing to keep their secrets sealed which they mostly provided under subpoena, it's a mix of adtech, agencies, platforms, you name it. /2
We also learn some glossary items which likely come up:
'RASTA' - Google's tool to evaluate new 'launches' (aka changes) in ad serving system, runs on live traffic
'Ariane' - identifies and summarized launches
'Launch' - creative name (lol), it replaced Ariane in 2020/2021 /3
SCOTUS just posted order list. It granted cert to Facebook on its Cambridge Analytica matter. Only first question but that’s a huge one. Basically should Facebook have disclosed to shareholders what it started to cover up in 2015 rather than presenting risk as hypothetical? /1
Here is the actual first question as written. One immediate item, it’s outrageous if Justice Kavanaugh didn’t/doesn’t recuse seeing his reported best friend, Joel Kaplan, was directly involved in the matter and its cover up. He threw his SCOTUS confirmation party IIRC. /2
Here is a link into background. I strongly urge press not to overlook this or assume you know fact history. Over the years much has played out in coverup and much of the reporting has been bent towards Facebook’s spin. I am more than happy to point you to the court records. /3
“X has lost dozens of major advertisers under Musk’s ownership, with 74 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers from that month no longer spending on the platform as of May.” 1/4
Smart NBC report focusing on amplification, velocity and reach, “X isn’t living up to its own policies when it allows violent extremists to use the platform’s amplification features.” 2/4
“It’s not clear to what extent people at X were aware that the company was monetizing the extremist hashtags prior to NBC News’ reporting.” 3/4
Let’s do this. As I’ve said in the past, nothing makes a statement on important news close to the newspaper front page. Across America, almost every editor went with the simple fact, “Guilty.”
Let’s start with the biggest circulation. /1
I shouldn’t overlook Chicago and Los Angeles, Same. /2
Now let’s drop down to Florida for maybe obvious reasons to see how they reported it… /3
Super smart, important read in Washington Post for regulators, media executives, lawmakers. At a high level, Meta continues to use its market power to suppress all value in brands, news orgs and media companies. Brands are proxies for trust, but profit and data to Meta. /1
“These are platforms doing what platforms do, which is trying to optimize the time spent and the data collected. They don’t really have much interest or care for what happens to news outlets or journalists,” said @emilybell. /2
@emilybell But what is interesting here that needs to be pursued. How will Canada react considering they have a code that seeks to curb this imbalance in bargaining power. Facebook is attempting to run over to prevent further spread dismissing it as ineffective law. They’re wrong. /3