A judge in the US state of New Mexico has made Facebook parent Meta one Fine of $25 billion sentenced. A jury had previously found that the company had deceived consumers. The case stemmed from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign accessed data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.
The state accused Meta, a Facebook user in New Mexico of lying about who had access to their datahow the company handles hate speech and misinformation on the platform and other internal policies. Meta knew that third parties had broad access to users’ personal information and tolerated hate speech or other harmful content when it benefited the company’s profits, the state said.
The state’s attorney general sued Meta in 2021 after it was revealed that the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had collected personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users via a third-party app. At the end of September, the jury found that Meta made misleading statements 43 million violations violated New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. The number was based on the number of Facebook users or New Mexico residents who were the target audience of each misleading statement.
Second judgment within six months
State law imposes a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation and requires all money to go to the New Mexico school system, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez told reporters after the ruling. A lawyer for the state had demanded a fine of up to $40 billion. The court must speak to Meta in the only language the company understands, namely money and the value of its share price, she said.
Meta, on the other hand, had called for a cap of $3.45 billion, arguing that a higher penalty would risk driving companies out of the state.
It is the second verdict against Meta in New Mexico in six months. In an earlier trial, jurors decided in March that the company had misled users about the safety of young people on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.
A judge then sentenced Meta to one Civil penalty of $375 million. He also ordered the company to contribute $567 million to a teen mental health fund and implement measures to protect young users.