A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay a $25B civil penalty for misleading Facebook users about privacy and hate speech, according to Bloomberg. The penalty follows a jury finding of over 43 million violations of state consumer protection law, with the case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The state had sought up to $40B, while Meta argued for a much lower sum and plans to appeal the decision.
Judge Francis Mathew applied the maximum penalty per violation but reduced the total from a possible $219B to $25B. The state’s Attorney General called it one of the largest single-state verdicts against a company in US history. The funds are set to go to a state education fund. Meta’s lawyers claim the penalty is a constitutional violation and dispute whether New Mexico residents were directly harmed.
New Mexico acted independently from other states, declining group settlements and pursuing court action. The penalty exceeds the state’s expected general-fund revenue for 2028 and is larger than previous settlements Meta has made over data privacy and child safety issues. The company’s appeal process will be closely watched by regulators and tech firms.
