New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay record $25 billion for Facebook privacy violations

A United States judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury determined that the company misled Facebook users about privacy violations. State District Judge Francis Mathew issued the ruling on Wednesday, stating that Facebook had promised users they controlled their data when this was factually incorrect.

Last month, the same jury found Meta responsible for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico's consumer protection laws. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez described the decision as one of the largest state verdicts against a company in United States history. He remarked that the judgement should serve as a clear message to Silicon Valley, the region where major technology companies are headquartered.

Meta's legal team had argued that such a large penalty would be unjust, and they noted that the jury had not demonstrated that individual New Mexican residents had directly experienced harm from the company's misleading statements. However, Raul McGinn, a lawyer representing the state, urged the court to hold accountable the large technology companies that believed they could operate without consequences.

Torrez announced that all money from the award would be directed towards funding New Mexico's education system. The state had accused Meta of deceiving users about who could access their personal information and how the platform managed harmful content. The $25 billion award substantially exceeds the $5 billion fine imposed by the Federal Trade Commission on Facebook in 2019.