Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in New Mexico privacy case
publishers 100articles 108first reported 21 Oct, 17:21 UTCdeveloping since 21 Oct · 11 editions
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found that the company repeatedly misled Facebook users about data privacy and content moderation.
State District Judge Francis Mathew issued the order Wednesday, following a September verdict that identified more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer-protection law. Jurors found that 26 of 29 statements by Meta and its leadership were misleading. Mathew calculated that state law could support a penalty exceeding $219 billion but reduced the award to $25 billion.
The lawsuit, filed by New Mexico in 2021, arose partly from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The now-defunct political consulting firm obtained data 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 misrepresenting who could access users’ personal information, users’ control over their data, and the company’s handling of hate speech and misinformation. The court said the violations were willful and occurred between 2010 and 2021.
Meta said it would appeal. Chief legal officer CJ Mahoney called the ruling excessive and said the lawsuit sought to impose “a tax on speech.” Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the judgment as one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history. Under state law, the awarded money is designated for New Mexico’s public education system.
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 60 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 100
- Source articles
- 108
- Given to the writer
- 8, 7 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 60 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 →