New Mexico jury finds Meta misled residents on privacy and misinformation

The verdict opens the door to financial penalties for Meta after a trial tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

New Mexico jurors found that Meta breached the state's Unfair Practices Act, concluding its privacy representations and handling of misinformation had misled residents. The dispute traces to a 2021 state lawsuit prompted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook data was used to target political ads during the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica had used information from 50 million Facebook users, largely without their consent. The judge has not yet set Meta's penalty. A separate child-safety settlement with 47 US states totaled $18 billion and included $459 million for existing Cambridge Analytica lawsuits; New Mexico and Florida did not join that part of the agreement, allowing their case to proceed.