Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion in New Mexico Privacy Case

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion in penalties after finding that the company misled consumers about the privacy of their data. Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it had "been a long time coming holding Big Tech accountable," as Engadget reports, citing Reuters.

What the case was about

The lawsuit, filed in 2021, was not directly about the data Cambridge Analytica harvested. It focused instead on Facebook's statements over the years about user data, privacy settings and content moderation. In September, a Santa Fe jury found that Meta violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act and counted 43 million violations. At up to $5,000 each, the theoretical maximum came to about $219 billion.

The ruling

The state had asked for $35 billion to $40 billion, while Meta argued for no more than $3.45 billion. Judge Francis Mathew settled on $25 billion. In his ruling he called Facebook's promised post-scandal investigation "willfully ineffective" and pointed to "the clear intentional and systematic nature of Facebook's repeated misstatements."

The money will go to New Mexico's school system, and interest accrues at 15 percent a year until the penalty is paid in full.

The case is separate from a recent settlement between Meta and nearly every other US state over child safety concerns. That deal included nearly $459 million for Cambridge Analytica data harvesting claims. New Mexico skipped it, which opened the door to this trial.

Meta has said it will appeal. Chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney called the penalty "a tax on speech."