Matthew Mondschein
Source NM
This story was originally published by Source New Mexico at sourcenm.com.
A New Mexico jury on Friday found Facebook willfully violated state law and engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices regarding collection of user data.
In total, the jury found that Facebook committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew will now decide how much the company will pay; attorneys representing the state have asked for the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation.
“What this jury has said is that after 16 years of Facebook lying to New Mexicans and telling them their data was safe when they were taking all of their private thoughts and selling it to other people. Somebody finally stood up to them and said ‘we are not going to put up with that,’” attorney Randi McGinn, who represented the State of New Mexico, told reporters following the announcement of the jury’s decision.
The state initially filed its case against Facebook in 2021, following news reports of the Cambridge Analytica data breach in which users’ personal information was used for political advertisements leading up to the 2016 election. The trial follows two high-profile courtroom victories for the state in unrelated cases against Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
In a statement provided to Source NM, a Meta spokesperson said, “We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record. Meta’s platforms are forums for free expression. We have a First Amendment right to manage those platforms in a way we believe best serves the interests of our community. This means prioritizing free speech, protecting our users’ information and giving them control over their data.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as needed.