New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion
States gain a powerful new route to challenge platform privacy claims.
Overview
Meta faces a $25 billion judgment after a New Mexico jury found that Facebook misled users about who could access their data. Jurors also found that Facebook overstated how well it limited hate speech and false information. The case followed the , when an app-linked operation obtained data from millions of users and used it for political ads. Jurors found 26 of 29 statements misleading and counted more than 43 million violations of .
cut a possible penalty of more than $219 billion to $25 billion. The amount would still be among Meta’s largest penalties. Meta plans to appeal, challenging the findings, the number of violations, and the penalty’s size. The case could make it easier for states to take major platforms to court over privacy and content-control claims, but the final payment and legal rules remain uncertain.
Timeline
Meta said it would appeal the verdict and $25 billion judgment
Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the company was confident it would prevail on appeal. The appeal could challenge the , the number of violations attributed to individual statements, and the resulting penalty, while testing how applies to large platforms.
The judge reduced a potential $219 billion statutory penalty to $25 billion
Applying the law’s potential maximum of to more than 43 million violations would have produced a penalty exceeding $219 billion. Mathew reduced that calculation to $25 billion while retaining the judgment against Meta.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading consumers
entered a $25 billion judgment after finding liable under New Mexico consumer-protection law. The award followed the jury’s findings on data privacy and content moderation statements and became one of the largest financial penalties imposed on .
New Mexico sued Meta over Facebook data access and content moderation
Attorney General alleged that Facebook misled users about who could access their personal data and whether its privacy safeguards worked. The case also challenged statements about hate speech, misinformation, and different treatment for prominent accounts, bringing privacy and platform moderation claims into one consumer-protection lawsuit.
The jury counted more than 43 million New Mexico consumer-law violations by Meta
The jury calculated violations according to the people who received or were covered by the misleading statements, including Facebook users and New Mexico residents. That method produced more than 43 million violations under the state’s .
A New Mexico jury found 26 of 29 Meta statements misleading
Jurors found that Meta and its leaders had made misleading statements about user data, privacy protections, hate speech, misinformation, and related moderation practices. The verdict covered the categories of public claims that formed the state’s .
The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed Facebook data access at the center of New Mexico’s case
obtained information from millions of Facebook users through an app-linked data operation connected to political advertising during the 2016 election. New Mexico used the episode to argue that Meta’s public assurances about third-party access and privacy controls did not match its practices.