A US jury in New Mexico convicted Meta of misleading Facebook users about the use of their personal data and the extent to which third-party applications access it, in a case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to what Radio France Internationale reported.
The roots of the case go back to a complaint filed by the state of New Mexico in 2021, making it the only state that referred the dispute related to the data leakage scandals to the judiciary, after details of the case were revealed in 2018 when the British consulting company “Cambridge Analytica” acquired the data of tens of millions of users without their knowledge for political purposes.
The jury in the city of Santa Fe explained that these practices harmed the state’s population of about 2.1 million people, noting that the promises made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding informing affected users were misleading. Judge Francis Matthew will determine the value of the penalty, with the state demanding a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation, which could raise the total fine to about $63 billion, based on a financial document submitted by Meta.
For its part, Meta rejected the ruling completely, stressing that Facebook did not sell data that would allow users to be identified. A company spokesman told Agence France-Presse: “We object to this ruling and will continue to defend ourselves against attempts to distort our record.” It is noteworthy that other American states had concluded a settlement in August 2026 worth $459 million to end their claims against the company as part of a broader agreement to protect minors, but New Mexico refrained from participating in it.
This ruling comes in addition to a series of judicial setbacks that “META” suffered during the current year. In March, a jury in Los Angeles held Meta and Google responsible for the damages of a teenager’s addiction to the Instagram and YouTube platforms. In the same month, a jury in Santa Fe imposed a $375 million fine on Meta for misleading the public about the risks of its platforms to children, followed by a court order in August to finance a $567 million fund, bringing the total in that case to $942 million. At the end of August, Meta also agreed in a trial in Oakland to pay up to $18 billion to end lawsuits filed by 51 states and territories accusing it of designing its platforms to encourage children’s excessive dependence on them, at a time when the company continues to deny its responsibility and appeal the rulings issued against it.
