New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion over misleading privacy claims

A New Mexico judge on Wednesday ordered Meta, the tech company that owns Facebook and Instagram, to pay the state $25 billion in penalties. The court found that the company misled state residents about privacy. Meta has said it will appeal the ruling.

What the case was about

The state filed the lawsuit in 2021. It was not directly about the data collected by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, but it grew out of that nearly decade-old data scandal. The case focused on Facebook's statements about user data, privacy settings and content moderation.

In September, a jury in Santa Fe found that Meta had violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act by misleading residents on these issues. The jury counted 43 million violations. At up to $5,000 per violation, the maximum penalty would have been about $219 billion.

The state asked for $35 billion to $40 billion. State attorney Randi McGinn said the court should speak to Meta in the only language it understands, which is money. Meta asked for no more than $3.45 billion.

The judge's reasoning

In his ruling, Judge Francis Mathew described the investigation Facebook promised after the scandal as "willfully ineffective" and pointed to "the clear intentional and systematic nature of Facebook's repeated misstatements." New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it had "been a long time coming holding Big Tech accountable."

Link to another settlement

The case is separate from a lawsuit Meta recently settled with nearly every other US state over child safety concerns. That deal included nearly $459 million specifically for Cambridge Analytica data harvesting claims. New Mexico did not join the settlement, which is why this case went to trial.

The money will go to New Mexico's school system. Interest will accrue at 15 percent a year until the penalty is paid in full. Meta's chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, called the ruling "a tax on speech."