Meta ordered to pay $25bn in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica data-privacy case

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn after a jury found the company misled consumers over Facebook data privacy.

• Judge Francis Mathew issued the order Wednesday after finding $219bn in penalties were warranted under state law and reducing the figure.
• A Santa Fe jury in September found 26 of 29 company statements misleading, amounting to over 43 million consumer-protection violations.
• Mathew wrote that Facebook's wrongdoing over years went to the heart of its core business practices.
• Meta urged Mathew to cap the penalty at $3.45bn, saying no consumer had been shown to be misled.
• New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said the $25bn penalty will fund the state's education system.
• Meta announced it will appeal, with its chief legal officer calling the ruling a tax on speech and expressing confidence in reversal.
• The state had originally sought between $35 and $40 billion in the lawsuit, according to official statements.
• New Mexico was the only state to sue, after 48 other states settled with Facebook.