A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties over deceptive data practices tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Meta will appeal.
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties over how the company handled user data, in a case that traces back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Verge and TechCrunch both reported the ruling on Wednesday.
How the number was reached
According to The Verge, a New Mexico jury ruled in September that Meta misled consumers about how it protected their data and how it dealt with misinformation and hate speech on its platforms. The case stems from a 2021 complaint filed after the revelations that Cambridge Analytica harvested data from millions of Facebook accounts.
The Verge reported that the judge cited the "extraordinary number of willful violations," their duration and repetition, and the involvement of senior Facebook leadership as reasons to apply the highest penalty allowed under state law, $5,000 per violation. Across more than 43 million violations, that would have come to over $219 billion, but the judge reduced the total to $25 billion, The Verge said. TechCrunch, citing The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, noted that part of the case involved Meta's handling of a third-party app linked to the Cambridge Analytica breach.
Reactions
Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said in a statement that the ruling "makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico" and that the lawsuit "seeks to impose a tax on speech." He added: "We are confident we will prevail on appeal."
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the case was about "whether corporations can mislead consumers about what happens to their personal information without facing meaningful consequences." According to TechCrunch, he told reporters the money "may have paid for the construction of schools for the next 100 years." The attorney general's office described the sum as one of the largest financial penalties against a corporation in U.S. history, The Verge reported.
Context
The Verge called it the biggest legal hit Meta has taken this year. It follows a separate New Mexico state-court ruling that ordered Meta to pay nearly $1 billion in civil penalties and abatement over misleading the public about product safety, and a $17.1 billion settlement with most other state attorneys general over kids' online safety complaints. Of that settlement, $5.3 billion is contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar measures, per The Verge.
Because Meta has said it will appeal, the final amount and timing of any payment remain uncertain.
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