Meta Platforms faces another legal hurdle after a Santa Fe, New Mexico trial found Facebook misled residents about how the data was handled and other platform policies. The verdict followed a two-week trial on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and detailed how personal data of millions of Facebook users was harvested in a third-party application and then used for political profiling.
The case was brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in 2021 because of the revelations that came out in 2018. At the time, data from as many as 87 million Facebook profiles was harvested from a third-party app connected to researcher Aleksandr Kogan and then used by Cambridge Analytica. The now-defunct political consulting company had worked with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
New Mexico’s lawsuit went beyond the original Cambridge Analytica incident. Facebook had made false claims to residents about sharing and protecting personal information, hate speech and misinformation, and how its policies were enforced on the platform, the state claimed. The jury found that many of those assertions made by the state were in violation of New Mexico’s consumer protection law.
Jury Finds More Than 43 Million Violations
One of the most significant aspects of the verdict is the number of violations that the jury found in the verdict. New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act violations were reported by jurors to have been more than 43 million violations, according to the newspaper. They were calculated by how many people were affected by the statements the jury found to be false.
The financial penalty is not yet firm. Judge Francis Mathew will decide on the civil penalties at a later hearing. New Mexico lawyers have asked for a maximum statutory penalty of $5,000. The final amount, in this scenario, will be determined by the court and should not be an automatic calculation based solely on the maximum figure.
The jury did not accept every allegation by the state. In some cases, jurors rejected Meta’s statements about its efforts to remove harmful content and its fact-checking practices. That means the verdict was based on specific statements and allegations and not to prove every claim made by New Mexico.
Meta Disagrees With Verdict
Meta has rejected the verdict and said it will defend itself. Meta said it disagreed with the jury’s judgment and claimed that its platforms are forums for free expression. The company also said it has a First Amendment right to run its platforms and protect users’ data and people’s control over their data.
The company also argued during the trial that some of the evidence presented by the state was outdated and that its policies had evolved since the lawsuit was filed in 2021. Meta has maintained it has systems in place to identify and remove content that violates its standards.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez also pointed out that Meta's handling of user information and platform policies had been the focus of the trial, and the state is seeking financial penalties to prevent the same practice from happening in the future, he said.
Cambridge Analytica Scandal At The Centre Of Case
The verdict brings fresh attention to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, one of the most significant privacy controversies in Facebook’s history. The controversy came to light in 2018 after it was revealed that information from millions of Facebook users had been collected via a personality quiz application.
Even though only a small number of users directly visited the application, information about their Facebook friends could also be accessed at the time under the platform’s policies. The data was then used by Cambridge Analytica for voter profiling and targeted political advertising.
The scandal drew wide regulatory scrutiny and legal action against Facebook. New Mexico’s case was unique in that the state had its own lawsuit and not other states’ settlements.
The result of the new verdict is another chapter in the long-running legal fallout from the data controversy. It also puts a renewed focus on how social media companies communicate privacy protections and data-sharing practices to users.
Meta's immediate problem is deciding penalties in New Mexico. Meta has said it will fight the state’s claims and the verdict. For consumers, the case highlights a continuing legal battle over how much information technology companies send out about their data practices and how those representations are judged by state consumer-protection laws.
Meta Faces Continuing Legal Scrutiny
The New Mexico verdict comes at a time when Meta is under legal scrutiny over a variety of issues relating to its social media platforms. The company’s privacy practices, content moderation policies, and user-safety measures have all been subject to litigation and regulatory attention.
But this case is predicated on statements and practices examined under New Mexico law. The result of the jury and any future penalties will determine the immediate consequences for Meta in this lawsuit.
As Judge Francis Mathew considers the appropriate civil penalties, attention will continue to focus on whether the court imposes the maximum amount sought by the state or determines a different figure. But no decision has been reached as far as this verdict is concerned.
