A New Mexico judge fined Meta $25bn for repeatedly lying about its handling of Facebook user data, marking the largest penalty ever imposed on the company.
01Summary
- 01Judge Francis Mathew in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25bn (£18.6bn) on Wednesday after a two-week trial found the company misled the public about data privacy.
- 02The fine surpasses Meta's previous record penalties, including an $18bn settlement with California this year and a $5bn FTC fine in 2019.
- 03The lawsuit originated from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where Facebook user data was used for political consulting in the 2016 US presidential election.
- 04A jury found Meta had violated New Mexico state laws more than 40 million times, affecting roughly 2 million people in the state.
- 05Judge Mathew said Meta's violations were willful and spanned 11 years, with senior executives including Mark Zuckerberg designing communications to mislead the public.
02Why it matters
This ruling shows that even the largest tech companies can face substantial penalties for data privacy breaches, potentially influencing how Meta and other platforms handle user data globally.
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