A Santa Fe jury found Meta misled New Mexico Facebook users about how it shared personal data and enforced platform rules, in a case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Jurors ruled 31 of 34 challenged statements were unfair or deceptive and said each statement reached roughly 1.4 million New Mexico users in 2020. Meta argued the state took comments out of context; Judge Francis Mathew will decide damages. The verdict follows a separate New Mexico ruling against Meta over teen safety and a larger multistate settlement.
Santa Fe Jury: Meta Misled New Mexico Facebook Users Over Cambridge Analytica Data Sharing
Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/ Techlicious generated by ChatGPT
A jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has found that Meta (formerly Facebook) misled state residents about how it shared personal data and how it enforced its platform rules, a case tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Reuters reports.
Jurors concluded that 31 of 34 statements challenged by New Mexico's attorney general were "unfair or deceptive" under the state's Unfair Practices Act. The jury also found that each disputed statement reached at least an estimated 1.4 million New Mexico Facebook users in 2020 — a figure that could translate into tens of millions of individual violations, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Background: Cambridge Analytica Connection
Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, used data collected through a third-party app to build voter profiles. In 2018 it emerged that data from as many as 87 million Facebook users had been harvested through that app, prompting widespread outrage and regulatory scrutiny.
State's Claims and Meta's Defense
New Mexico sued Meta in 2021, arguing the company sold user information to third-party apps like the one Cambridge Analytica relied on while publicly giving users the impression they controlled how their information was used. The state pointed to public statements, including remarks by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company blog posts, that it said created that impression.
Meta's lawyers argued the state cherry-picked snippets and ignored broader context in which the company acknowledged shortcomings in its handling of privacy and misinformation. The jury nevertheless sided with New Mexico. Judge Francis Mathew will now decide the amount Meta must pay.
Related Rulings and Settlements
This is Meta's second legal loss to New Mexico in six months. In March, a Santa Fe jury found the company had misled users about young people’s safety on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and initially awarded $375 million; a judge later directed Meta to pay $567 million into a state teen-mental-health fund.
Separately, Meta agreed to pay up to about $17.1 billion to resolve claims by 51 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories that its platforms were designed to addict young users. That multistate settlement included $459 million allocated to several states pursuing Cambridge Analytica-related claims; New Mexico opted out, which is why its case proceeded to trial.
Reporting cited: Reuters and the Albuquerque Journal.
Help us improve.
