Meta has been ordered to pay a record-breaking $25bn penalty following a high-profile legal battle in New Mexico. The ruling represents the largest financial sanction ever handed down against the tech conglomerate, eclipsing a recent multi-billion-dollar agreement reached with California.
The case concluded on Wednesday when a state judge issued the massive penalty after a two-week trial earlier in the year. Proceedings centered on allegations that the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp engaged in a multi-year campaign to deceive consumers regarding its data privacy protections.
State attorneys argued that company executives repeatedly assured the public that personal information was never accessed by outside entities without explicit consent, despite evidence to the contrary. Prosecutors maintained that these deceptive practices affected virtually every resident of New Mexico. Jurors ultimately determined that the social media giant had violated state consumer protection statutes on tens of millions of occasions.
The legal action originated from the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica controversy. That political consulting firm improperly obtained the personal profiles of millions of platform users to influence electoral campaigns, including the 2016 US presidential race.
In addition to data privacy violations, the trial examined how the corporation managed hate speech on its networks. The jury concluded that executives intentionally misled the public regarding the enforcement of platform policies and the financial benefits the company derived from controversial content.
The presiding judge noted that the deceptive behavior spanned more than a decade, running from 2010 through 2021. Internal communications involving high-ranking leadership, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, were explicitly crafted to misinform the public and protect corporate interests.
Although statutory calculations could have resulted in a penalty exceeding $200bn, the judge adjusted the final sum to $25bn. This figure corresponds roughly to the company's average quarterly profits.
Legal representatives for the tech firm immediately criticized the decision. A top company attorney stated that the ruling threatens to make commercial operations in the state unviable and confirmed plans to appeal the verdict. Company defenders argued that the lawsuit amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to police online speech and impose arbitrary regulatory burdens.
This judgment adds to a difficult year of legal setbacks for the enterprise. New Mexico has emerged as a particularly aggressive regulator, having previously penalized the company nearly $1bn over child safety concerns on its platforms. Those earlier proceedings involved judicial comparisons between social media harms and industrial pollution.
Federal regulators have also scrutinized the company's privacy standards in the past, highlighted by a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019. State attorneys general across the country continue to pursue various legal tracks concerning youth protection and data transparency. State prosecutors in the latest case emphasized that the outcome demonstrates that no corporation possesses enough influence to operate outside the boundaries of the law.
Reporting based on coverage first published by BBC News. Read the original report at BBC News.
