Meta has been ordered by a New Mexico judge to pay a $25 billion penalty following a two-week trial that found the technology giant spent more than a decade misleading the public about its handling of user data.
The penalty, handed down on Wednesday by Judge Francis Mathew, marks the largest fine to date against Meta for its business practices. The legal reckoning stems from the company’s historical practices, particularly its role during the era when it was known as Facebook and the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which utilized user data in political consulting work connected to the 2016 US presidential election.
Judge Mathew Details Years of Misleading Statements
During the proceedings, the court examined thousands of violations of state law tied to executive statements claiming that user data was never sold or shared with outside parties. Judge Mathew determined that these misrepresentations were willful and spanned more than 11 years,
running continuously from 2010 through 2021.
⚠️BREAKING:*META MUST PAY $25 BILLION IN PENALTIES, NEW MEXICO JUDGE RULES AFTER JURY FOUND COMPANY MISLED CONSUMERS ABOUT PRIVACY$META
Communications reviewed in the case, including exchanges involving CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were described by the judge as designed to mislead the public.
The trial itself followed a lawsuit filed by New Mexico’s attorney general in 2021, three years after news reports revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.
While mathematical calculations under state law placed the potential maximum penalty at $219 billion based on the sheer volume of affected individuals, the court reduced the final sanction to $25 billion—an amount roughly equivalent to the corporation’s quarterly profits. Under New Mexico law, Mathew can award up to $5,000 per violation. Jurors examined 29 statements identified by the state and found 26 of them to be misleading, including comments about user data, hate speech, and misinformation, while rejecting claims that Meta misled consumers regarding its fact-checking practices and efforts to remove harmful content.
Meta Disputes the Verdict While Legal Battles Continue
Representatives for the corporation rejected the findings and indicated intentions to mount further legal defenses, with a Meta spokesperson stating the company disagreed with the verdict and would continue to defend itself against efforts to distort our record.
Attorneys for Meta had argued during the trial that the challenged statements were cherry-picked snippets ignoring critical context, and the company denied that it sells user information.
The state of New Mexico has emerged as one of the company’s most notable adversaries in court. Attorney General Raúl Torrez emphasized the scope of the findings at a press conference following the verdict, stating that the litigation exposed in stark detail the way in which this company plays fast and loose with the rules.
Beyond the data privacy penalties, the state previously secured substantial financial judgments and operational requirements aimed at protecting young users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms, including a separate case this year where the state fined Meta almost $1 billion for misleading the public about the safety of its social media platforms for children, leading the judge overseeing that lawsuit to compare Meta to an industrial polluter of the air, with its form of pollution being the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children.
$META – META MUST PAY $25 BILLION IN PENALTIES, NEW MEXICO JUDGE RULES AFTER JURY FOUND COMPANY MISLED CONSUMERS ABOUT PRIVACY
META MUST PAY $25 BLN IN PENALTIES, A NEW MEXICO JUDGE RULES, AFTER A JURY FOUND THE COMPANY MISLED CONSUMERS ABOUT PRIVACY