Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion over data privacy claims

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion after a trial over claims that Facebook misled users for years about how it handled their personal data. The case grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which information from Facebook users was obtained through a third-party personality quiz and used for political consulting.

Judge Francis Mathew issued the order Wednesday following a two-week trial earlier this year, the BBC reported. CBS News reported that a jury found Meta had deceived consumers about its data privacy policies. Mathew described the company’s violations and public misrepresentations as “willful,” according to the BBC, and said they spanned more than 11 years, from 2010 to 2021.

“These communications were part of a coherent strategy designed to mislead the public,” Mathew wrote, according to CBS News. The BBC reported that he also said the falsehoods went beyond Facebook’s data practices and reached “the heart of Facebook’s core business practices.” Communications among senior executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were “designed to mislead the public,” the judge wrote, according to the BBC.

The lawsuit focused in part on statements by Meta executives that user data was never sold or shared with third parties, according to the BBC. CBS News reported that a third-party personality quiz harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles and sold it to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, to generate targeted ads. The BBC reported that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook user information in its consulting work, including work related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The penalty was calculated from thousands of violations of state law. The full amount came to $219 billion, but Mathew reduced it to $25 billion, the BBC reported. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the award “one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history.” The BBC described it as the largest fine to date against Meta for its business practices and said the amount was roughly equal to the company’s profits in a quarter.

Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment reported by CBS News and the BBC.

The order follows other legal actions involving the company this year. The BBC reported that Meta had been fined or had agreed to settle several other lawsuits, including an $18 billion deal with California over child safety. It also reported that New Mexico fined Meta almost $1 billion in a separate case over claims that it misled the public about the safety of its social media platforms for children.