Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion after jury finds it deceived Facebook users about privacy

A jury has found Meta liable for deceiving Facebook users about privacy and content moderation policies on the platform, ordering the company to pay the state of New Mexico $25 billion. Judge Francis Mathew ruled on the amount, which is $10 billion less than the state's initial demand of $35 billion to $40 billion. The case stemmed from Cambridge Analytica harvesting Facebook user data to generate targeted political ads during the 2016 election.

Forty-eight other states had previously settled with Facebook in a nationwide case, but New Mexico opted to take the company to court. Meta argued for paying no more than $3.4 billion, claiming that a larger sum would violate due process, be unconstitutional, and not withstand an appeal. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez stated that the $25 billion will go into a state fund for education.

Facebook attorneys argued that the state had failed to prove misleading statements about privacy and that content moderation actually harmed New Mexicans. However, the jury found over 43 million violations of state law after assessing the company's misleading statements 34 separate times. Meta plans to appeal the verdict in hopes of reducing the number of violations and, consequently, the total financial penalty.