A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found it liable for more than 43 million violations of state consumer protection laws. The case centred on claims that Facebook misled users about how it handled their personal data, including what control people had over information shared on the platform.
It followed the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a third-party personality quiz harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles; the firm used the information for targeted political advertising during the 2016 US election season.
Judge Francis J. Mathew said Facebook’s deception was intentional and that company executives repeatedly misled users. Meta disputes the ruling, saying the state failed to prove its claims and that the case seeks to impose new rules on online speech. The company said it would appeal. The award could therefore be reduced: jurors rejected some of the state’s claims, including allegations that Facebook made false statements about removing harmful content.
Interest will accrue during the appeal, but New Mexico may wait years to receive any payment. Under the state constitution, fines for consumer protection violations go towards education spending.
New Mexico sought $35 billion to $40 billion, while Meta argued for a maximum of $3.4 billion and said a much larger penalty would be unconstitutional. The $25 billion award is far above the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion fine against Facebook in 2019. Meta had separately joined a multistate settlement of $18 billion over teen social media addiction, but New Mexico did not take part in that agreement.