A jury finds Meta liable for misleading New Mexico residents about third-party data sharing, content moderation, and more in the Cambridge Analytica scandal
A jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, found on Friday that Meta Platforms (META.O) misled the state's residents, in a case stemming …
ReutersDiana Novak Jones
Context & Ripple Effects
New Mexico brought the Cambridge Analytica claims to trial after alleging in September that Meta failed to protect Facebook user data. The verdict follows the state's separate $375 million child-safety jury award against Meta in March, giving its consumer-protection campaign a second major courtroom result.
The finding addresses representations about third-party data sharing and content moderation, rather than a new product or policy announcement. It places Meta's public statements and platform disclosures at the center of state-level enforcement.
First-order effects
Meta is liable to New Mexico residents for deceptive conduct tied to third-party data sharing and content moderation, subject to the case's remaining remedies process.
New Mexico's attorney general gains a jury verdict to support enforcement of the state's consumer-protection laws against Meta.
Second-order effects
Meta faces greater pressure to ensure that privacy and moderation representations are consistent across user-facing disclosures, public statements, and internal platform practices.
Other state attorneys general gain a concrete trial-tested example of using consumer-protection claims to pursue alleged platform-data and safety misrepresentations.
Third-order effects
Repeated state jury actions against Meta point toward consumer-protection law becoming a broader route for imposing accountability on platform governance, alongside privacy-specific rules.
If other states follow New Mexico's litigation approach, platform compliance will be shaped not only by policy requirements but also by how companies substantiate public claims about user protections.
The trend: State consumer-protection enforcement is expanding into a durable accountability channel for platforms' claims about data handling and user safety.
Facebook found liable in New Mexico for misleading statements over privacy, misinformation | MLex | Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation
Big tip of my hat to Bloomberg Law. So many newsrooms, some major, have moved past this scandal while actual evidence finally came out in lawsuits and unsealed discovery allowing Meta to fill the void with misleading / false history. Bloomberg gets this right. 1/2
BREAKING: Another historic victory over Big Tech. A Santa Fe jury just found Facebook misled New Mexicans about their privacy. We stood up to Big Tech, and we're holding them accountable. No company is above the law. #NMpol #NewMexico
The jury said the first 9 @Meta statements the jury reviewed for being deceptive or unfair were all violations. Question No. 10 was the first where state failed to prove deceptive or unfair.
.@RaulTorrezNM already held Meta accountable for exposing children to online predators, now he's leading the way in holding them accountable for misusing personal consumer data. @RaulTorrezNM is sending the message that tech giants aren't above the law. https://www.santafenewmexi…
Do me a favor, watch this absurd video of Meta/Facebook/Instagram CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Then remember he's settled the child harms came for billions and then read down on this jury verdict, up and down (then delete your Muse app).
And there is the jury verdict I've been waiting on for nearly 8yrs after over $7B in settlements by Facebook. Too bad nearly every date, the SEC, the FTC, class action all settled....letting Meta delay, deny, deflect for so many years. https://x.com/...
..."For years, Facebook operated as if the rules that apply to everyone else didn't apply to them. Today, a jury of New Mexicans said otherwise. This is a historic verdict, not just for New Mexico, but for every state fighting to hold Big Tech accountable.
The New Mexico jury found that @Meta committed an unfair or deceptive trade practice over its statements that Facebook users had control of their data and committed 2.1 million violations — the population of the state of New Mexico.
One signficant jury finding is Question 21: #Zuckerberg statement that @facebook would let users know if their data had been “misused” by an app following its App Developer Invesigation was a deceptive or unfair trade practice. #CambridgeAnalytica
The jury futher found that #Facebook staterments that that “we don't sell people's data” were unfair or deceptive, including 2.1 million violations. So far, the jury is saying that every of @Meta personal data statements were deceptive or unfair.
Things that should happen now that we have a jury verdict: - full speed ahead on NDCAL securities, DC AG suit naming Zuckerberg, SEC should unseal Sandberg's transcript finally and DOJ should investigate the accuracy of Zuckerberg, others' testimony to SEC, Congress, et al.
Also good, it's actually closer to $7B when you count the SEC (Sandberg depo still absurdly sealed btw). @DCAttorneyGen better not settle including his suit naming Zuckerberg personally. Well done @IsaiahPoritz. 2/2
Today's victory sends a clear message to Big Tech: you will be held accountable. No matter how big or powerful the company, you are not above the law. We're proud to lead that message right here in New Mexico. #NMpol #NewMexico
By my math, the New Mexico jury found about 43.2 million violations by @Meta . If the judge awarded the maximum penality to @facebook (that won't happen) that would total about $216 billion.
Support local news y'all. That's why this was reported correctly. As opposed to garbage interviews like this. It got much worse later when he tries to rewrite history on this scandal. We finally learned from his unsealed SEC depo he himself almost named CA in 2017.
Today the #NMDOJ secured another historic jury trial verdict with over 43 million violations of #NewMexico's Unfair Practices Act against Facebook... [video]
Damages here are TBD but theoretically could reach the $ hundreds of BILLIONS. — I hope all those sucker AGs who just settled their Cambridge Analytica claims for $460 million spread across fifty-ish states and territories are having uncomfortable conversations rn.