New Mexico Wants Meta To Pay $40 Billion In Penalties For Cambridge Analytica Scandal

The state of New Mexico has requested a judge to order Meta Platforms to pay between $35 billion and $40 billion in penalties, following a jury's decision that the company misled consumers about the privacy of their data on Facebook, as reported by Reuters. This case stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the British political consulting firm harvested personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app without their consent.

Randi McGinn, a lawyer for New Mexico, argued that imposing the full $5,000 penalty per violation would be excessive under the US Constitution's due process protections, but suggested a significant fine of $35 billion to $40 billion that would still impact Meta's stock price and comply with constitutional rights. Meta's lawyer, Matt Nicholson, dismissed the state's request as an "astronomical penalty" that would violate constitutional provisions and claimed the company did not sell user data, nor was any consumer proven to have been misled. The judge is expected to issue a ruling later this month.