A New Mexico court condemned Meta will pay $25 billion to the US state after a jury concluded that Facebook had misled its users about the protection of their personal data. This historic fine has its origins in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but also refers to the company’s statements on content moderation.
A harsh sentence of 25 billion dollars for Meta
Judge Francis Mathew set the penalty at $25 billion, weeks after the jury’s verdict. On September 25, jurors determined that 26 statements by Facebook and its management, of the 29 examined, were misleading. They found a total of 43,899,725 violations of the New Mexico Unfair Trade Practices Act. Since the legislation allows a fine of up to $5,000 per violation, the theoretical amount exceeded $219 billion. The judge reduced the penalty to $25 billion.
The procedure, initiated in 2021 by Attorney General Raúl Torrez, criticized Facebook in particular for having given a misleading image of the control exercised by its users over their personal information. The American State also questioned the way in which the social network manages hate content and misinformation. The judge considered that the statements in question were part of repeated practices for more than eleven years, and not an isolated incident.
The case dates back to 2018, when Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy, was found to be exploiting the data of tens of millions of Facebook users. The information, collected through a third-party application, would have affected up to 87 million profiles. They were notably used to profile voters and target political messages during the 2016 US presidential campaign.
However, the New Mexico trial was not just about this episode. Authorities also accused Facebook of misleadingly presenting its privacy practices and its handling of harmful content. Meta refuted these accusations, considering in particular that the American State had not demonstrated that its statements had actually caused harm to the interested parties.
Meta appeals and denounces excessive sanction
Meta intends to challenge the decision in court. Its legal director, CJ Mahoney, said the attorney general’s decision and approach made it “almost impossible” the company’s activity in the State of New Mexico. He also believes that the procedure amounts to imposing a financial penalty linked to freedom of expression online. The company says it is confident it can win its appeal.
The final amount far exceeds the $5 billion that Facebook agreed to pay the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2019 as part of another proceeding related to data protection. According to the Attorney General of New Mexico, the sums resulting from this new sanction should fuel education financing in the state. However, payment could take years if the appeals process drags on.
