A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25bn (£18.6bn), the largest fine the company has faced over its business practices. The ruling was issued on Wednesday, following a two-week trial earlier this year. The judge found that the firm, which runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had spent years lying to the public about how it handled Facebook user data.
Judge cites years of misleading statements
Judge Francis Mathew said the deception reached beyond data practices. “The lies extend beyond Facebook’s data practices as well,” he said, adding that they went to “the heart of Facebook’s core business practices.”
In his order, the judge described Meta’s violations of law and misstatements as “willful” and said they spanned “more than 11 years,” from 2010 to 2021. He wrote that communications between senior executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were “designed to mislead the public.”
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The full penalty, based on thousands of violations of state law, was calculated at $219bn. The judge reduced it to $25bn, an amount he set at roughly equal to Meta’s profits each quarter. A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cambridge Analytica case and earlier settlements
The lawsuit stems from Meta’s role, then known as Facebook, in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. That firm used Facebook user information in political consulting, including work related to the 2016 US presidential election, which resulted in Donald Trump being elected for the first time.
Lawyers for New Mexico sued over statements by Meta executives that user data was never sold or shared with third parties. The state’s lawyers argued that the data had in fact been shared.
Meta faces a string of penalties this year
The $25bn fine is the largest to date against Meta, which has been fined or has agreed to settle several other lawsuits this year. These include an $18bn deal with California over child safety. New Mexico also fined Meta almost $1bn this year for misleading the public about the safety of its platforms for children.
The judge overseeing that case compared Meta to an industrial polluter of the air, saying its pollution was “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children.”
