Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion to the state of New Mexico for misleading Facebook users about how their personal data was handled. The ruling came from Judge Francis Mathew on October 21. It stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which is now about a decade old.
Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign. It got hold of data from a Facebook quiz app, covering about 87 million users, and used it to target potential voters with messages.
The story broke in 2018, and the firm shut down the same year. Meta, then still called Facebook, has been dealing with the fallout ever since.
New Mexico sued in 2021. The state argued that Meta was not honest with users about how their data was protected. According to reports, the case also covered Meta’s privacy policies and its efforts to limit misinformation and hate speech on its platforms.
A jury sided with the state and found 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection law.
How the Number Got so Big
The math is simple. New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act allows a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation. Prosecutors asked for the maximum on all 43 million, which comes to roughly $215 billion. Meta’s lawyers argued for as little as $3.4 billion.
READ: Facebook Fined $5 Billion Over Cambridge Analytica Saga
The judge landed much closer to Meta’s number than to the state’s, but he still agreed with the state on the key point.
He wrote that the maximum penalty per violation was justified, citing the huge number of willful violations, how long and how often the conduct happened, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership, and the clear intent behind the misstatements.
He then set the total at $25 billion, well below the theoretical maximum.
How This Compares to Other Meta Cases
The attorney general’s office called it one of the largest financial penalties against a corporation in U.S. history. It dwarfs Meta’s other recent legal losses.
In a separate New Mexico case over the safety of Meta’s products, the company was ordered to pay close to $1 billion.
A group of other state attorneys general settled a kids’ online safety case with Meta for $17.1 billion, though $5.3 billion of that depends on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar safety measures.
New Mexico and Florida were the two states that stayed out of that settlement, reportedly because they did not want to release Meta from liability over Cambridge Analytica. That decision has paid off for New Mexico.
READ: Understanding How Cambridge Analytica Abused Facebook Data to Influence Elections
Huge potential penalties are common in Meta stories and rarely become real. When a social media addiction trial began in August, some outlets reported that Meta could owe as much as $1.4 trillion. A settlement came about two weeks later for under $20 billion.
This case is different because a judge actually signed off on a number, and it is far larger than anything Meta has paid so far.
What Happens Next
Meta says it will appeal, and a ruling this large will almost certainly be challenged. Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the ruling makes it nearly impossible to do business in New Mexico.
He also called the lawsuit an attempt to put a tax on speech and to enforce new rules about what people can say online. He said Meta is confident it will win on appeal.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sees it differently. He said the case was about whether companies can mislead people about what happens to their personal information without facing real consequences.
Money from consumer protection wins in New Mexico goes toward schools, and Torrez said this judgment could cover school construction for the next 100 years.
Whether the state ever collects the full amount is unknown. Appeals can take years, and Meta still has plenty of other cases pending.
