A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay a staggering $25 billion penalty following a landmark lawsuit over decade-old privacy failures tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Judge Francis Mathew handed down the massive judgment after a state jury found 43 million violations of local consumer protection laws. Prosecutors had initially pushed for the maximum possible penalty of $5,000 per violation, which could have totaled $215 billion, while Meta argued the liability should cap closer to $3.4 billion.
The legal battle stems from revelations that Cambridge Analytica harvested data on tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent ahead of the 2016 presidential election. During the trial, state prosecutors highlighted the repeated misstatements from Facebook leadership, the sheer scale of the affected audience in New Mexico, and the systematic nature of the deception. New Mexico and Florida notably refused to join a broader multi-state settlement of roughly $18 billion, specifically keeping their right to litigate the Cambridge Analytica fallout.
Meta has firmly denounced the ruling and vowed to appeal the decision. C.J. Mahoney, Meta's Chief Legal Officer, argued that the enforcement approach creates an untenable business environment in the state and amounts to a penalty on online speech. Meanwhile, state officials celebrated the decision, noting that the resulting funds are slated to support local public schools. Whether this multi-billion-dollar judgment will survive the appeals process remains the central question as the long-running privacy saga stretches onward.
Meta Hit With $25 Billion Fine Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal
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