A New Mexico jury has ruled that Meta violated the state's Unfair Practices Act, finding the company misled residents about data privacy and its handling of misinformation. The verdict stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which data from millions of Facebook users was harvested for political advertising.
The state's suit alleged Meta misrepresented what third-party apps could do with user data, maintained unclear or vague privacy settings, and falsely claimed it applied hate-speech policies equally. Meta's lawyers admitted past mistakes but denied selling user data or benefiting from hate speech. A judge has yet to decide how much Meta will be fined.
The case was possible because New Mexico and Florida declined to participate in a broader settlement with 47 states over child safety, which included a $459 million payment to resolve existing Cambridge Analytica lawsuits. Meta has previously reached multiple settlement agreements over the scandal in the US, UK, and Australia.