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Attorneys representing the state of New Mexico told jurors that targeted political ads, attempting to lower Democratic turnout during the 2016 election, used Facebook data sold to a political consulting firm, during opening statements in a trial over the platform’s data protections.
Facebook’s attorney said the social media company investigated suspicious third-party apps following the breach and told jurors the state’s evidence is outdated because safeguards have improved.
Opening statements began in Santa Fe on Wednesday morning, just weeks after 48 U.S. states reached a landmark settlement with Meta, which addressed child safety concerns and privacy issues surrounding the same data breach. So far, New Mexico is the only state that has pushed the case toward trial, expected to last four weeks, as part of its go-it-alone approach to prosecuting Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
In court documents, the state argues Facebook failed to alert or protect users from a personality quiz on the social platform that harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. The data was used to generate targeted ads during the 2016 presidential election.
Randi McGinn, the attorney representing New Mexico, said Cambridge Analytica used Facebook profile data to geographically target Democratic voters with messaging such as “‘Hillary’s got it, you don’t need to vote’,” in an alleged attempt to reduce voter turnout. The now-defunct firm’s clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.
Facebook’s attorney, Dane Butswinkas, said the platform has come a long way since the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Facebook conducted independent investigations and tried to stop suspicious third parties from harvesting user data following revelations about how the data was used. The company also banned apps and referred suspicious developers to regulators, he said.
The state’s lawsuit was filed in 2021, and Butswinkas told jurors much of their evidence is outdated.
“You’re going to have a hard time stacking up the evidence of what they actually did, and what they actually said, and find it unconscionable,” Butswinkas said, addressing the jurors.
McGinn told jurors Facebook flagged over two thousand apps internally, but the company didn’t alert users or force apps to delete data, which she said was to avoid public fallout. Facebook makes nearly all of its revenue from advertising sales.
Butswinkas told jurors that individual users have the power to choose what data can be shared with advertisers and that the company has worked to reduce misinformation on the platform.
“Facebook takes action to minimize risk to its users. Not perfect, but they take action,” he said.
The trial is expected to last around four weeks and will include a video deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The state is seeking the maximum civil penalties under New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, up to $5,000 per violation, and an injunction to halt future breaches of user data.
The state estimates around 350,000 residents were exposed to the Cambridge Analytica breach. But McGinn asked jurors to consider that the harm caused by Facebook extended to all New Mexicans, over two million people, and that each individual impacted could potentially be a violation under the act.
Jurors will decide how many times Facebook violated the Unfair Practices Act, but Judge Francis Mathew will ultimately determine how much the company will pay per violation.
“When you decide the number of violations, that’s the number of people they were trying to fool,” McGinn said during her opening statement.
In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle the multistate suit surrounding child safety issues. Buried in the 130-page settlement was an agreement to release Meta from future liability related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, making New Mexico the only state to pursue a case. Florida was the only other state that didn’t sign the settlement, claiming it wasn’t tough enough on the social media conglomerate.
Earlier this year, New Mexico secured a total of $942 million from Meta in a two-phase trial about the company’s safety protections for minors. The court also ordered Meta to implement new safeguards, including age-verification technology and time limits on its platforms.
“Facebook’s data breach didn’t just expose private information, it revealed a pattern of misrepresentation about how user data was collected, shared, and exploited,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement Tuesday.
___ Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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