A $25 billion penalty: Meta ordered to pay in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case

Judge sets $25 billion penalty

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found Facebook deceived users about privacy and content moderation. Judge Francis Mathew issued the order following the jury’s verdict.

The amount is below the $35 billion to $40 billion sought by New Mexico prosecutors, but far above the $3.45 billion cap proposed by Meta’s lawyers. The court had been asked to set the payment after the jury’s decision.

New Mexico rejected settlement

New Mexico declined to join that settlement and sued Facebook. Prosecutors said the company’s public statements about privacy misled the state’s roughly 2.1 million residents, and argued that the platform allowed misinformation and violent content to spread. Meta’s lawyers said the state had not shown that people were harmed and argued that Facebook had strong content moderation.

Appeals may delay payment

At trial, state attorney Randi McGinn argued that money and stock value were the language Meta understood. Torrez said the penalty could fund school construction for the next 100 years. Meta has pledged to keep defending itself against what it called efforts to distort its record.

The case adds to legal challenges facing major social media companies in the United States and elsewhere. In a separate August verdict, a New Mexico court ordered Facebook to pay $567 million over harm to children.