Meta Found to Have Misled Consumers in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica Case

A jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has found that Meta Platforms misled consumers in a case stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. The verdict, reported by Reuters on Friday, concludes a two-week trial over a lawsuit originally filed by the state's attorney general in 2021.

Details of the Verdict

The lawsuit accused Meta of making misleading statements to New Mexicans regarding several key areas of its operation. According to the state's attorneys, the company was not transparent about:

• How it shared users' personal information with third parties.
• Its processes for handling hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
• The consistent application of its policies across all users.

The case centered on the 2018 revelation that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, had improperly obtained personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app for voter profiling. The state argued that Meta's public statements, including those from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, created a false sense of security and control for users over their data.

Legal Arguments and Next Steps

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During the trial, attorneys for Meta argued that the state had cherry-picked statements and ignored broader context where the company acknowledged its privacy and content moderation challenges were ongoing. The company also denied that it sells user information.

Following the jury's verdict, a judge will now determine the amount of monetary penalties Meta must pay for the violations. The trial was viewed by Reuters on the Courtroom View Network.

Broader Legal Scrutiny

This marks the second significant legal setback for Meta in New Mexico in the last six months. In March, a separate Santa Fe jury found the company misled users about safety for young people on its platforms and ordered it to pay $375 million in civil penalties. A judge later directed Meta to pay $567 million into a state fund for teen mental health.

While Meta recently reached a sweeping settlement with 47 U.S. states to resolve claims that it designed its platforms to be addictive to children, New Mexico was not part of that agreement. That broader settlement included a $459 million payment to resolve Cambridge Analytica-related privacy claims in other states, allowing New Mexico’s case to proceed to trial.