Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg was sanctioned by a judge for deleting emails

A Delaware judge has sanctioned former Meta COO and board member Sheryl Sandberg for deleting emails. The Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

The decision stems from a lawsuit Meta shareholders filed late last year against Sandberg and another former Meta board member, Jeff Zients. The plaintiffs alleged that Sandberg and Zients used their personal email accounts to communicate about issues related to a 2018 shareholder lawsuit that accused Facebook leaders of violating the law and their fiduciary duties by failing to protect users’ privacy.

The plaintiffs also alleged that Sandberg and Zients deleted emails from their personal inboxes despite a court order not to do so. In a ruling Tuesday, the Delaware judge overseeing the case found the allegations credible.

“The defendants disclosed Sandberg’s personal Gmail account, maintained under a pseudonym, that he ‘reported on matters that may be relevant to the claims and defenses in this action,'” said the judge’s decision. “The fact that the attorney did not give straight answers in Sandberg’s cross-examination or in response to plaintiffs’ questions supports the conclusion that Sandberg did not use the automatic deletion feature, but rather picked and chose which emails to delete.”

In sanctioning Sandberg, the judge raised the legal standard for Sandberg’s affirmative defense, a defense based on facts other than those supporting the plaintiff’s claim. Sandberg must now prove her defense by “clear and convincing” evidence — not just a “preponderance” of the evidence, a burden that’s easy to clear.

The judge also assigned certain costs to the plaintiffs.

The courtroom battle stems from allegations that Meta officials violated a 2012 FTC order under which the company agreed to stop collecting and sharing Facebook users’ personal information without their consent. Facebook then allegedly sold the data to commercial partners, including political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, and allegedly removed the disclosures from privacy settings required by the FTC’s order.

In 2019, Meta agreed to pay $5 billion to the FTC to settle charges that the company violated the 2012 order. The company has also paid fines from regulators in Europe.