A New Mexico jury has found Facebook, owned by Meta, liable for deceiving users about privacy protections and misleading the public about investigations into third-party applications that harvested user data. Prosecutors said the case involved a personality quiz that collected information from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to political consultancy Cambridge Analytica for targeted advertising.
The jury found more than 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection law, affecting New Mexico’s population of over two million. The judge will decide the penalties at a hearing on 1 October; prosecutors are seeking the maximum $5,000 per violation, which could exceed $200 billion, although the final amount remains uncertain.
Meta spokesperson Alex Burgos said the company disagreed with the verdict and would continue defending itself against what he described as efforts to distort its record. Meta’s lawyers argued that the state’s evidence was outdated and said the company had changed its policies since the lawsuit was filed in 2021. Jurors rejected one part of the case, finding that New Mexico had not proved Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including COVID-19 misinformation.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said any award would go to the state’s education system, while New Mexico is also seeking an injunction to prevent similar practices. The verdict follows separate judgments totalling $942 million against Meta over protections for minors.