Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in data privacy case

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion after a jury found that the company misled consumers about the privacy of their personal data on Facebook.

The ruling, issued on Wednesday (October 21), follows a lawsuit filed by New Mexico in 2021 over allegations that Meta misrepresented who could access users’ data and how it handled harmful content on its platform.

The case stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the British political consulting firm harvested personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users through a third-party application without their consent.

In September, a jury found that 26 of 29 statements made by Meta and its leadership were misleading, resulting in more than 43 million alleged violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws.

Judge Francis Mathew initially calculated that penalties exceeding $219 billion could be justified under state law but reduced the amount to $25 billion.

Meta has said it plans to appeal the ruling. The company’s chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, argued that the decision would make it extremely difficult to operate in New Mexico and described the lawsuit as an attempt to restrict online speech.