New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion over Facebook privacy claims
publishers 95articles 101first reported 21 Oct, 17:21 UTCdeveloping since 21 Oct · 11 editionstop 25 #1
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found the company repeatedly misled Facebook users about data privacy and content moderation.
State District Judge Francis Mathew issued the order Wednesday, writing that Facebook falsely promised users they controlled their data. The jury found Meta responsible for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer-protection laws and determined that 26 of 29 statements by the company and its leadership were misleading. Mathew calculated that state law could support penalties exceeding $219 billion but reduced the award to $25 billion.
The state’s 2021 lawsuit arose partly from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The now-defunct political consulting firm obtained personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent and used it for targeted political advertising, including work connected to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. New Mexico also accused Meta of misleading users about third-party access to personal information and its handling of harmful content.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the judgment was among the largest imposed against a corporation in U.S. history. The money is designated for the state’s public education system.
Meta said it will appeal. Chief legal officer CJ Mahoney called the lawsuit “a tax on speech” and said the ruling made it “all but impossible to do business” in New Mexico. The company maintains that the state did not establish that residents saw or were harmed by the disputed statements.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 7 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 24 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 95
- Source articles
- 101
- Given to the writer
- 8, 7 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 24 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.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →