Qureshi v. Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) conducted an investigation into whether Facebook had violated federal securities law in connection with the improper transfer of the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. As part of that investigation, the SEC deposed Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg in February 2019.

Zamaan Qureshi requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the transcript of Zuckerberg’s SEC deposition testimony. After initially withholding the entire transcript, the SEC produced the deposition transcript with numerous redactions, invoking FOIA exemptions 4, 6, and 7(C). Representing Qureshi, Public Citizen filed a FOIA lawsuit against SEC to compel disclosure of the redacted information. The SEC then released all of the exemption 4 redactions and some of the exemption 6 and 7(C) redactions challenged by Qureshi. The parties then stipulated to dismissal, ending the case.