In brief
Meta was ordered by a New Mexico judge to pay $25 billion for a decade‑long pattern of deception about user data. The fine stems from over 40 million violations, including lies about third‑party access that were repeated by senior executives. The ruling follows other penalties this year, such as an $18 billion California settlement and a $5 billion FTC fine. Meta plans to appeal the decision, arguing that a higher penalty would be unconstitutional.
Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, was hit with the largest fine ever against it in a New Mexico court, ordering the company to pay $25 billion for a decade‑long pattern of deception about how it handled user data.
Judge Francis Mathew cited more than 40 million violations of state law, finding that senior leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, routinely lied that third parties could not access user information without permission. He described the conduct as “willful” and stretching from 2010 to 2021.
The ruling came after a closely‑watched trial that revealed Meta’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where data from millions of users was used in political consulting during the 2016 U.S. election.
Meta has been hit with other penalties this year, including an $18 billion settlement with California over child‑safety shortcomings and a $5 billion FTC fine for privacy violations.
The company said it would appeal the decision, arguing that a penalty above $3.4 billion would be unconstitutional. New Mexico’s Attorney General Raúl Torrez warned that “no corporation is too powerful to be held accountable.”
