Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Lying to Facebook Users About Privacy

A judge in the US state of New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion (over Rs 2 lakh crore) for misleading Facebook users about their privacy. The ruling came on Wednesday and is the biggest penalty Meta has faced so far over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which first broke in 2018.

Santa Fe district judge Francis Mathew passed the order weeks after a jury found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act. In his decision, the judge said Meta had followed a deliberate plan to mislead the public.

Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Lying to Users About Privacy

Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

How $219 billion became $25 billion

New Mexico law allows a penalty of up to $5,000 for every violation. With over 43 million violations, the maximum crossed $219 billion. The judge said a penalty that large was justified under state law, but he brought it down to $25 billion. Meta will also have to pay 15 percent interest every year until the full amount is cleared.

The two sides had argued for very different numbers. The state wanted $35 to $40 billion, saying the penalty had to hit Meta's stock price to change its behaviour. Meta's lawyers said it should pay no more than $3.4 billion. For perspective, New Mexico's entire general fund budget is about $11 billion.

What the jury held against Meta

The case goes back to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that got hold of data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a personality quiz app. The data was later used for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Around 3.5 lakh people in New Mexico were affected.

The state sued Meta in 2021, arguing the company lied to users about who could access their data. The jury looked at 34 public statements made by Meta and found most of them deceptive. One was a 2010 promise from Mark Zuckerberg that users control how their information is shared. Some statements about Meta's content policies were also found misleading.

Almost every other US state had settled its Cambridge Analytica claims with Meta. New Mexico stayed out of that deal and chose to take the company to trial instead.

Meta says it will appeal

Meta plans to challenge the ruling. Its chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the order and the attorney general's approach make it nearly impossible to do business in New Mexico. Attorney General Raúl Torrez said he expects an appeal but will push hard to make sure the state collects the money.

For Indian users, the scandal is not distant history either. Facebook said in 2018 that up to 5.6 lakh people in India may have been affected, and the CBI registered a case against Cambridge Analytica in 2021.