New Mexico Court Fines Meta $25 Billion Over Cambridge Analytica Data Deception
A state judge slashed an initial statutory calculation to land on a staggering $25 billion penalty against Meta, while the tech giant vowed to appeal.
A court in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company guilty of misleading consumers regarding data privacy practices, according to Reuters. The penalty ranks among the largest fines in U.S. history.
The legal battle stems from the historic Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the now-defunct political consultancy harvested data from millions of Facebook users without consent. State authorities sued Meta, arguing the company lied to local users about who could access their personal information.
Judge Francis Mathew calculated that statutory penalties under state law could have exceeded $219 billion, ultimately reducing the fine to $25 billion. Meta General Counsel CJ Mahoney expressed confidence that the company will prevail on appeal, calling the ruling an attempt to impose a “free speech tax.”
Source: habr
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