Overview
- A New Mexico judge set a $25 billion penalty on Wednesday after a jury found Meta misled users about who could access their Facebook data and how the company handled harmful content.
- The judge reduced an initial statutory calculation of roughly $219.5 billion to $25 billion while using the jury's finding of millions of violations under a state law that allows up to $5,000 per violation.
- The case traces to the Cambridge Analytica revelations that investigators reported in 2018 showing data from about 87 million Facebook accounts were harvested through a third‑party app and used for political profiling.
- Meta has said it will appeal, which is likely to delay any collection and distribution of funds and could lead appellate courts to change the number of violations or the total penalty.
- This is New Mexico's second recent judgment against Meta after a March ruling that imposed a $375 million civil penalty and required funding for youth mental‑health programs, and the outcome could shape how state consumer laws are used to police big tech.