A New Mexico jury on Friday found Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy protections on the platform in the latest legal setback against the social media giant that has already cost it billions of dollars.
The jury found over 43 million violations of state consumer protection law and it is now up to the judge to determine how much the company would pay, with attorneys representing the state asking for the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation.
“The verdict marks a significant victory for New Mexico consumers and holds one of the world’s largest technology companies accountable for its conduct,” the New Mexico Department of Justice said in a statement.
The two-week trial in Santa Fe centered on accusations that Facebook, owned by Meta, deceived users about a data breach stemming from a third-party personality quiz that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate targeted ads. The now-defunct firm’s clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.
Jurors sided with prosecutors, finding Facebook made deceptive statements about protecting users’ data that affected New Mexico’s entire population of more than two million people. The jury also found Facebook misled the public about investigations into third-party app developers that harvest user data following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook claims state’s evidence was ‘outdated’
“We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record,” said Alex Burgos, a spokesperson for Meta in an email.
During closing arguments, lawyers for Facebook claimed the state’s evidence was outdated and that despite having five years to gather material, New Mexico found only one other instance of a data breach.
In one of the few wins for the defense, jurors found the state didn’t prove that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state claimed the company favored certain accounts and allowed for violent or inaccurate content to proliferate. During closing arguments, Randi McGinn, an attorney representing the state, argued that Facebook profited off harmful content.