How to claim the settlement payment
Users in the US who had a Facebook account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, are eligible to receive a payment. To apply, users can complete a form online or mail a printed form. The deadline to claim the settlement payment is August 25. The exact amount individual users will receive has not been confirmed. As more users submit valid claims, the payment amount will decrease due to the funds being divided among all affected users.
Facebook and its legal problems
In 2018, it was alleged that Cambridge Analytica, a firm associated with Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of approximately 87 million platform users. This data was then used to target US voters during the 2016 election campaign that resulted in Trump becoming the 45th US president.
Prior to Meta’s decision to settle the lawsuit, the company’s CEO was questioned by US lawmakers. Additionally, users were advised to delete their Facebook accounts. Rival platforms like
TikTok have also hindered Facebook’s growth. However, the social media platform still has over 2 billion users worldwide, including nearly 250 million in the US.
Apart from the Cambridge Analytica lawsuit, Meta has faced scrutiny over data privacy for some time. In May, the EU imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on Meta and ordered the company to cease transferring users’ personal information across the Atlantic by October. Furthermore, Meta’s new micro-blogging app, Threads, has not been launched in the EU due to privacy concerns.