The latest in Meta's compounding public relations woes, Texas is suing the tech giant over its use of facial recognition technology.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton (you might remember him for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results), filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook's parent company of collecting "biometric identifiers" (such as facial geometry) from some 20 million Texans' photos and video uploads without permission, failing to disclose the practice, and sharing "users’ personal information to other entities who further exploited it."
According to Paxton, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company violated two pieces of state legislation: the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Facebook stopped using facial recognition tech in November 2021, a move it announced in a blog post explaining that the platform will "delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates."
The company also gave users the option to opt out of being automatically recognized and tagged in photos and videos.
The suit adds to the long list of calamities Meta has dealt with since its divisive name change.
In case you need a refresher: there was Meta's historic stock market plunge; the revelation that sexual harassment happens in the metaverse, too; and its reported proliferation of counterfeit fashion (a phenomenon that takes place on a wide range of digital platforms, from Reddit to TikTok).
Of course, there were problems plaguing the company before its rechristening. Most notably, whistleblower Francis Haugen testified that the social media platform knowingly harms children in pursuit of profit, an allegation that The Wall Street Journal investigated on its own in a rather unsettling exposé.
Paxton's lawsuit goes to show that liberals and Texans can agree on one thing, and it's that Mark Zuckerberg must be stopped.
