Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion in New Mexico over Facebook’s mishandling of user data and misleading privacy claims tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which exposed millions of users’ personal information ahead of the 2016 election.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion Wednesday after a jury found the company liable for misleading state residents about how Facebook collects and protects their personal data, as Reuters reports. The penalty stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the British political consulting firm improperly obtained information from as many as 87 million Facebook users.
According to CNBC, District Court Judge Francis Mathew determined that the company’s conduct warranted the maximum civil penalty of $5,000 for each of more than 43 million violations identified by the jury. The judge’s filing put the state’s award at $219.5 billion before reducing the penalty to $25 billion. Interest will accrue at 15% annually until Meta pays the fine in full.
Mathew cited the frequency and duration of the violations, the number of people affected, and the involvement of senior company executives in explaining the penalty. He also found that Facebook failed to conduct the thorough internal investigation it had promised after the Cambridge Analytica revelations, describing the company’s efforts as “willfully ineffective.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the ruling showed that technology companies could be held accountable under existing law, regardless of their size or influence.
Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney disputed the ruling and said the company expects to prevail on appeal. Per CNBC, he argued that the case would make it nearly impossible for Meta to operate in New Mexico, adding that the state was attempting to “impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.”
Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed the privacy lawsuit in 2021. The case proceeded separately from a broader settlement Meta reached in August with a coalition of state attorneys general over allegations involving child safety and mental health, which also resolved privacy claims related to Cambridge Analytica for participating states. New Mexico was not part of that agreement.
The latest penalty also follows a separate New Mexico case over child safety. In March, a jury found Meta liable for $375 million in violations of state consumer protection law, and a judge later ordered the company to contribute $567 million to a fund addressing harms associated with its platforms, as SFist reported previously. Meta has said it intends to appeal that ruling as well.
The ruling comes amid a broader legal backlash against major tech companies, with courts increasingly using existing consumer protection and antitrust laws to challenge business practices that lawmakers have struggled to regulate. As The New York Times reports, lawsuits over privacy violations, alleged monopolies, and social media features linked to mental health harms are resulting in major financial penalties and court-ordered changes, creating a new avenue for accountability after years of limited congressional action.
Related: Meta Agrees to $17 Billion Settlement In Social Media Addiction Lawsuit From 47 States
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