Meta ordered to pay $25bn in user data privacy case
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion following a jury verdict that the company deceived users regarding data privacy in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Meta plans to appeal the ruling, characterizing the penalty as a tax on speech.
Why it matters
This represents a massive legal and financial blow to a major tech corporation, setting a significant precedent for data privacy litigation.
A judge in the US state of New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion (€22.2bn) after a jury found last month that the social media giant had deceived users in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal .
The ruling comes two months after Meta agreed to pay $18bn to settle claims brought by 48 other states, including allegations tied to Cambridge Analytica.
Meta called the case a "a tax on speech".
"This ruling... makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico," Meta said in a statement. "We are confident we will prevail on appeal."
Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm found to have improperly harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, notably during the 2016 US presidential election.
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New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay Twenty Five Billion Dollars
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