New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Liable for Deceiving Millions Over Cambridge Analytica Data

Eight years after Cambridge Analytica became shorthand for everything wrong with Facebook, a jury has finally put a verdict on it. On Friday, a New Mexico state jury in Santa Fe found Facebook liable for deceiving users about how well it protected their data.

The jurors concluded that Facebook's misleading statements about privacy reached New Mexico's entire population of more than two million people. That scale is what makes the case dangerous for Meta.

A quiz, 87 million profiles and a campaign

The two-week trial went back to the scandal's origin: a third-party personality quiz that scooped up data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles. That data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, which used it for targeted political ads for clients including the 2016 Trump campaign.

Jurors reviewed about 34 company statements. They found Facebook deceived people about protecting their data, and that it also misled the public about its investigations into third-party app developers harvesting user data after the scandal broke.

The state did not win everything. The jury rejected New Mexico's claim that Facebook made false statements about removing harmful content, including COVID misinformation.

The bill is still blank

There is no dollar figure yet. State attorneys want the maximum civil penalty of $5,000 per violation, and the judge will decide the amount at a hearing that has not been scheduled. The state is also seeking an injunction. Multiply a per-violation penalty across a population-wide deception and the ceiling gets very high, though how the judge counts violations will decide everything.

Meta spokesperson Alex Burgos said the company disagrees with the verdict and will keep defending itself. At trial, Meta's lawyers argued the state's evidence was outdated and pointed out that New Mexico had found only one other data breach in five years of looking.

The state that would not settle

New Mexico is only here because it refused a deal. In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle a multistate child-safety lawsuit, and that settlement also released Meta from future Cambridge Analytica claims for the states that signed. New Mexico kept going alone, and Florida also turned the settlement down as too soft.

It is not New Mexico's first win against Meta this year. The state already secured judgments totaling $942 million over protections for minors, along with court-ordered age verification and time limits. Other states are testing similar theories against platforms, as the TikTok teen mental health trial in Alabama shows.

For now, the verdict establishes liability, not a payment. The number comes later, from a judge, in a state that has made a habit of beating Meta in court.