Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion in Facebook privacy case
publishers 16articles 17first reported 21 Oct, 21:31 UTCdeveloping since 22 Oct · 7 editions
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta Platforms to pay the state $25 billion after a court found the company intentionally misled Facebook users about the privacy of their data.
The case, filed by New Mexico’s attorney general in 2021, followed revelations that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app. The firm used Facebook data to create targeted political advertising during the 2016 US election, when it worked for Donald Trump’s campaign.
New Mexico accused Meta of misleading users in the state about who could access their data and about its handling of hate speech and misinformation. According to Al Jazeera, state lawyers alleged that Meta knew third parties had broad access to user information and tolerated harmful content when doing so benefited the company financially.
Judge Francis Mathew wrote that Facebook’s conduct went to the heart of its business practices. He found that state law could support a penalty exceeding $219 billion but reduced the amount to $25 billion.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez described the judgment as one of the largest single-state verdicts against a company in US history. Meta said it expects to prevail on appeal. Chief legal officer CJ Mahoney argued that the ruling would make it extremely difficult for the company to operate in New Mexico and characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to impose new restrictions on online speech.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 4 articles, 1 with the publisher's own text; 4 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 12 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 16
- Source articles
- 17
- Given to the writer
- 4, 1 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 4
- This version written
- 12 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
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