Judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion

Judge Francis Mathew ordered Meta to pay New Mexico twenty five billion dollars after a jury found the company liable for deceiving users about privacy and content moderation policies on Facebook.

Largest state verdict in American history

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the judgment one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history.

“one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history”

Warning for Silicon Valley

Torrez said the verdict should be an unambiguous message to Silicon Valley and that New Mexico would continue to hold tech companies accountable for their actions.

“This judgement should be a signal, an unambiguous message, to Silicon Valley”

Money goes to education spending

Under the New Mexico Constitution, fines for violations of consumer protection laws go to state education spending. Torrez said the money may fund school construction for the next one hundred years.

“We may have paid for the construction of schools for the next 100 years”

New Mexico pursued trial alone

Forty eight other states settled with Facebook in a nationwide case for eighteen billion dollars in August, but New Mexico chose to take the social media company to court on its own.

Jury found 43 million violations

Jurors in September found Meta liable for over forty three million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws stemming from Cambridge Analytica harvesting Facebook user data for targeted political ads in two thousand sixteen.

Competing arguments on harm and penalties

New Mexico sought thirty five to forty billion dollars, arguing Meta would only change with a sum affecting its stock price.

Meta questions whether harm was proven

Meta argued the state failed to prove misleading statements about privacy and that New Mexicans actually heard or saw these statements.

“The jury didn't make findings that any New Mexican heard or saw these statements, or was harmed by them”

Meta plans to appeal the verdict

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, previously said it plans to appeal the September verdict. The company's shares were trading two percent higher following the penalty announcement on Wednesday.