{"id":3087,"date":"2026-10-22T09:03:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:03:50","slug":"meta-ordered-to-pay-25-billion-penalty-to-new-mexico-in-data-privacy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3087","title":{"rendered":"Meta ordered to pay $25 billion penalty to New Mexico in data privacy case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms on Wednesday to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found<\/a> the \u200bcompany had misled consumers about the privacy of their data, hitting the company with one of the largest financial penalties in US history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ruling came in \u200ca case stemming from allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign, obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.<\/p>\n

New Mexico had sued Meta, accusing it of lying to Facebook users in New Mexico about who had access to their data.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacebook\u2019s wrongdoing \u2014 over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public \u2014 goes to the heart of Facebook\u2019s core business practices,\u201d Judge \u200bFrancis Mathew wrote in his order, which came more than three weeks after the verdict.<\/p>\n

Mathew found that a penalty of more than $219 billion was warranted based on state law, \u200bbut he reduced the figure to $25 billion.<\/p>\n

In a statement, C.J. Mahoney, Meta\u2019s chief legal officer, said the company is confident it will win on \u2060appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling, and the Attorney General\u2019s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,\u201c Mahoney said. \u201cAt its core, this lawsuit seeks \u200bto impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez said in a statement after the ruling the penalty was one of \u200bthe largest financial penalties against a corporation in US history.<\/p>\n

Meta previously faced a $5 billion penalty<\/a> from the US Federal Trade Commission in 2019 over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.<\/p>\n

Six other states settled their lawsuits against Meta related to Cambridge Analytica for $459.2 million as part of a $17.1 billion multistate settlement<\/a> the company reached in August to resolve states\u2019 claims that the company\u2019s platforms had harmed teen mental health.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Lawsuit filed five years ago<\/strong><\/h3>\n

New Mexico\u2019s attorney general sued Meta \u200bin 2021 following revelations that Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal data<\/a> from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.<\/p>\n

The state accused Meta of lying to Facebook users in \u200bNew Mexico about who had access to their data and its handling of hate speech and misinformation posted on the platform.<\/p>\n

It alleged the company knew third parties had broad access to users\u2019 data and tolerated \u200chate speech \u2060or other harmful content when it benefited the company\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, used the data for voter profiling and targeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a long time coming to hold Big Tech accountable,\u201d Torrez told a press conference in Albuquerque after Wednesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think today\u2019s judgment is a clear break with that past and a very clear warning to those in this space and beyond that we intend to protect our people and protect our consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mathew\u2019s decision comes as Meta faces thousands of lawsuits and pressure from lawmakers over the impact of Instagram and Facebook on teen mental \u200bhealth, with another trial slated to begin next \u200bweek.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, New Mexico won $942 million \u2060in a pair of<\/a> trials<\/a> against Meta over claims it facilitated sexual exploitation of young people on Instagram and Facebook and misled consumers about the platforms\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n

Analyst Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson & Co., called the latest New Mexico ruling costly but unlikely to impact the company\u2019s \u200bvalue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeta is worth nearly two trillion dollars, and will likely continue to appeal these cases and drag them out,\u201d Luria said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Experts long appeal flight<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Jurors in September had \u2060found that the company and its leadership made 26 misleading statements on data privacy, hate speech and other subjects.<\/p>\n

Multiplying those statements by their potential audience, they said the company had committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico\u2019s consumer protection laws.<\/p>\n

At a hearing on October 1, Randi McGinn, a lawyer for New Mexico, had asked Mathew to award the state between $35 billion and $40 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis court should \u2060speak to Meta \u200bin the only language it understands, which is money, and the value of its stock price,\u201d McGinn said.<\/p>\n

In court \u200bfilings, Meta urged Mathew to cap the penalties at $3.45 billion. The evidence showed that Meta does not sell user data and New Mexico did not prove that any consumer had actually been misled, the company said in court filings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms on Wednesday to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found the \u200bcompany had misled consumers about the privacy of their data, hitting the company with one of the largest financial penalties in US history. The ruling came in \u200ca case stemming from allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign, obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent. New Mexico had sued Meta, accusing it of lying to Facebook users…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}