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Santa Fe jurors view video deposition by Meta CEO Zuckerberg

Testimony centers on 'cross-check list' for controversial Facebook users

A video of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is displayed behind Randi McGinn, the attorney representing New Mexico, as she makes opening statements to the jury during the first day of trial Wednesday in 1st Judicial District Court. Zuckerberg testified by video Thursday.
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A Santa Fe jury heard a video deposition Thursday from Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who largely skirted questions from a New Mexico attorney about how Facebook responds to hate speech, misinformation and other posts that violate the company's community standards.

Zuckerberg's two-hour deposition focused on how the company deals with controversial speech submitted by politicians, celebrities and other high-profile users.

The deposition came on the second day of testimony in New Mexico's lawsuit against Facebook, which is centered on the company's role in the decade-old Cambridge Analytica data-breach scandal.

The 1st Judicial District Court trial is expected to continue through Oct. 2 before Judge Francis Mathew.

New Mexico attorney Randi McGinn focused her questions Thursday on allegations that Facebook created lists of politicians, celebrities and users with business relationships with Facebook who she said received special handling for false or misleading posts.

Zuckerberg responded that he had limited knowledge of the lists but disputed that Facebook exempted high-profile users from the company's standards for acceptable posts.

"I'm not familiar with the whole list, so I would certainly believe there were people on the list who were business partners" with Facebook, he testified. "But I also can't name any off the top of my head."

McGinn, who represents the New Mexico Department of Justice, showed Zuckerberg evidence showing that in 2020, Facebook maintained a "cross-check list" with over 4,500 people and groups that included controversial figures such as the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist militant group, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and other controversial users.

By 2025, the cross-check list in the U.S. had grown to include 799,000 people and groups, according to a Meta document McGinn introduced as evidence.

"I think (the cross-check list) was focused on sensitive accounts where we were worried about making mistakes on review, so wanted to make sure that we looked at them twice," Zuckerberg testified. However, "the rules and policies are exactly the same for the people on the cross-check list as they are for people who aren't."

The cross-check list "also included people like human rights activists and journalists and people who might have enemies who are trying to flag their content or get it taken down," he told jurors.

Absent from Zuckerberg's testimony Thursday was discussion about Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct London-based political consulting firm that harvested data from an estimated 70 million U.S. Facebook users, including about 350,000 New Mexicans.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal is the focus of the 2021 lawsuit filed by former Attorney General Hector Balderas that led to the ongoing trial.

The trial also focuses on allegations that Facebook allows posts containing misinformation, hate speech and other content that violates Meta's community standards.

An attorney for Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told jurors on Wednesday that Meta uses computer programs and human review to block hate speech, violent, sexual content and other content that violates the company's standards.

New Mexico contends that the cross-check list program, which requires human review of controversial Facebook posts, creates delays that allow hate speech and false and misleading content to go viral.

McGinn asked about a video posted in July 2020 that she said contained misinformation about COVID in violation of Facebook鈥檚 misinformation policy. Because Breitbart 近距离内射合集 Network was on the cross-check list, the video had 40 million views before the cross-check review was completed.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that those people watched the whole broadcast," Zuckerberg said. "It would have showed up, and at least 40 million people would have scrolled by it in a feed."

The trial marks the third time New Mexico and Meta have faced off in a Santa Fe courtroom this year.

In a 2023 lawsuit filed against Meta Platforms and Zuckerberg, Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez alleged the company failed to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and human trafficking. That lawsuit led to two high-profile trials this year in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.

On Aug. 6, District Judge Bryan Biedscheid ordered Meta to pay $567 million to help repair harm caused by the company鈥檚 platforms. That order followed a jury verdict in March that ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties to New Mexico.

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers the courts and legal affairs. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.