Alter Skandal, neues Urteil: Meta soll Milliarden wegen Cambridge Analytica zahlen

The Meta-owned Facebook corporation faces a potential $25 billion fine over a past data privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, according to a recent verdict. Jurors in New Mexico had previously ruled that user privacy and freedom of speech on Facebook were misled. The judge calculated a penalty of nearly $219.5 billion, which was then reduced to $25 billion (22.25 billion euros).

Initially, Meta remained silent on the decision. Following the jury's verdict a few weeks ago, the company had previously stated it disagreed with the decision and would continue to defend itself against the allegations. Each violation was assessed a fine of up to $5,000, and the jury found millions of violations which added up to billions of dollars after the judge's calculations.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which occurred in 2018, significantly damaged public trust in the Facebook corporation. It involved the use of information from a seemingly harmless survey conducted by a data researcher to create user profiles and sharing this data with the analysis firm Cambridge Analytica. The campaign team of then-candidate Donald Trump also used this data prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Around 87 million user accounts were affected. The company paid around $6 billion to the U.S. government to investigate the matter. In the aftermath of the scandal, New Mexico sued the company in 2021, alleging additional violations of free speech on the platform, stemming from revelations made during the investigation. A whistleblower report claimed that some prominent accounts were secretly exempted from platform rules during the investigation.