Canadian production company Merchant has added director Christopher Sargent to its roster for commercial representation in Canada. Sargent began his career as a VFX supervisor for television and commercials in 2005, then quickly moved into directing and cinematography for commercials and music videos in 2007. Since then, Sargent has consistently worked on major global campaigns with assorted brands and agencies winning numerous advertising awards, including Cannes Lions. One of his Super Bowl spots for Anheuser-Busch from 2017 received over two billion online impressions. Sargent is currently in various stages of development on the feature films Fixin’ To Die, The Godforsaken Sea and Hairfang. He lives between Canada and California with his family, and continues to be repped by Anonymous Content in the U.S. and U.K. markets….
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More
