In the parallel lawsuit vs Facebook due to its Cambridge Analytica cover-up, we just learned more in filings posted today as FB tries to shut down discovery and deposition ordered of Zuckerberg. FB included 4,200+ employees on messages they are claiming are privileged. lol. /1
If you're wondering about the highlighted name, it's the "equal partner" in the company that harvested the millions of records and sold them to Cambridge Analytica who was sketchily hired by Facebook in Nov 2015 as the Guardian reporter was closing in on the scandal. /2
Facebook's "privilege log" of everything they want to withhold from discovery was incredibly vague, generalizes groups and roles and clearly includes a lot of names and companies who according to decisions in other courts aren't privileged. Fairly absurd attempt to bury stuff. /3
Interesting, outside "consultants" which NdCal Court has already ruled aren't privileged since they weren't providing legal advice for this lawsuit but instead Zuckerberg announced to world were helping make sure the product was safe. What two firms helped with this effort? /4
Facebook filed just Friday in NdCal to seal names of FTI Consulting and Stroz Friedberg which had surfaced during a hearing but now we see them in public documents in DC Superior Court one day later. Outcast Agency is a "PR" firm Facebook has long used with ties to a16z, too. /5
There is also a doc the AG of DC office wants titled "Comms Source of Truth" which according to the motion had hundreds of people on it then later had outside counsel on it that Facebook now claimed to be privileged. The title and description of the doc are very interesting. /6
One name jumps out and that's a former journalist who in her now unsealed deposition said she was actually doing Strategic Communications directly for Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg avoided testimony with Congress around this entire matter and likely was a key conduit of clean-up. /7
Basically Facebook is WAAAAY over-reaching in trying to suggest communications are privileged with people who aren't even attorneys or in the case of these two people they're lawyers who represent industry groups and I have no idea how they could also be working for FB, too. /8
And for your trivia, among the 4,200+ employees claimed on privileged communications, there is even one Senate Majority Leader's daughter. Keep you posted but between NdCal and DC Superior, things are moving much more quickly of late. I'll add the Sat. thread below this. /9
Anyway, here is the parallel case in NdCal which also moved over the weekend. /eof
Woah. Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Facebook, just sanctioned by Delaware judge for deleting emails ahead of trial this spring. This is the state pension shareholder case alleging the company overpaid the FTC and SEC in $5B+ settlements in order to protect Zuckerberg. /1
Long after the books had been inspected and many lawsuits had played out, it was disclosed last year she had a personal Gmail account under a pseudonym that may have been used for relevant communications. /2
The Judge here calls her a "high sophisticated individual." He probably doesn't know about the 2018 NYT report on how she carved out these issues in her Senate Intel testimony or how their lawyers were sanctioned on related discovery in California. /3
wow. This AI lawsuit against Facebook keeps getting worse as they reluctantly unseal documents on Court orders.
Check out this allegation. Not only two hrs before discovery cut-off but the Friday before we now know Mark Zuckerberg was deposed... /1
Here is the bit from the newly filed and now unsealed third amended complaint. Allegations here Facebook used torrenting to download a pirated dataset to train LLaMA thereby also "seeding" pirated content globally. This is a BFD. /2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
In fact, it can be criminal so this count is in the third amended complaint and the state attorney general (hello, @AGRobBonta) should note these allegations here. As it relates to this case, it may also break their privilege claims since it alleged to further a crime. /3
wow. Upon Court order, incriminating exhibits were unsealed at 3:30am in an AI lawsuit against Meta. Once past a 'fake privilege,' it appears Zuckerberg approved the use of a highly controversial, pirated dataset.
Note OpenAI, too? AI companies with no ethics or guardrails. /1
Here they acknowledge risk in media coverage, and massive EU fines, if "we have used a dataset we know to be pirated." So then you ask yourself the question, did they actually know it was pirated and use it? I uploaded docs - . /2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
To that question, here is how the internal project manager describes the dataset. Note the line (these are all my yellow highlights), "when sourced from copyrighted materials without the permission of copyright holders." /3
woah. This Friday? Too much moving on court dockets so I will surface for you. This matters, in this mega-Facebook case, as highly respected Chenault was Chairman of Facebook's board during its biggest scandals. WSJ reported he left board after disagreements with Zuckerberg. /1
Here is the report on his departure, it includes reports of disagreements with Peter Thiel, too, over elections policies and "clashes" over moderation policies.
Btw, highly relevant to the last 24hrs of news. /2 wsj.com/articles/chena…
Moving on, Zuckerberg has also been noticed for deposition after "alleged wrongdoing on a truly colossal scale." He was already deposed last month in Hawaii for 7hrs. I would expect SEC closely compares transcripts to their 2019 depo which @zamaan_qureshi managed to unseal. /3
Here is how NYT reported it in the complaint. Google and Facebook suggested it was misrepresented. Their proxies have misled public into thinking it was dismissed from lawsuit despite Google's CEO being deposed about it only months ago. /3 nytimes.com/2021/01/17/tec…
woah. ~300 redacted summary judgment google exhibits posted in TX. I've uploaded all. most eye-popping - we finally get Google-Facebook contract (aka Jedi Blue) alleged as bid rigging (yes, press was misled, it's still part of the claims). /1
If you need a definition for Match Rate, Google and Facebook include it with example of using the "encrypted blob" on mobile, feels very much like a fingerprint y'all. Here is the full contract, don't sleep on section dealing with monopoly enforcement. /2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
There are a ton of new exhibits from discovery with similar themes of Google secretly using projects to manipulate its black box auctions. "The first rule of Bernanke is we don't talk about Bernanke." /3