Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in New Mexico privacy case

A New Mexico jury wrapped up a two-week trial by finding that Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — had broken the state’s consumer-protection law 43 million times through practices that deceived residents about its handling of their data, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. With a $5,000 penalty attached to each violation, the total reached $25 billion, the largest sum Meta has paid out in the long-running Cambridge Analytica saga.

Part of the case centered on Meta’s handling of a third-party app tied to the Cambridge Analytica data breach, the Journal reports; other parts concerned its broader data-privacy policies and its efforts to curb misinformation on its platform. Cambridge Analytica itself grew out of SLC Group, a British defense contractor known for influence operations and political consulting, including its past work on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and other controversial initiatives.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who brought the case, told reporters after the verdict: “We may have paid for the construction of schools for the next 100 years.” Meta said it will appeal; Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney argued the ruling amounts to a tax on speech that imposes new rules on what people can say online, adding that the company is confident it will prevail and will keep operating in the state.

Why it matters

The verdict is Meta’s costliest Cambridge Analytica-linked payout yet and shows state attorneys general can extract massive penalties from data-privacy claims years after a scandal first breaks.