Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,
A Santa Fe judge on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms to pay New Mexico $25 billion after a jury found the company committed 43.9 million violations of state consumer-protection law by making misleading statements about Facebook users' data privacy and control.
The case, filed in 2021, grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. New Mexico alleged that Facebook, now Meta, systematically misled the public - and New Mexico users - about how it handled personal data and allowed third-party apps access to users' information, including statements by senior executives such as CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A jury on Sept. 25 sided with the state, finding 26 of 29 public statements by Facebook to be misleading and treating each as reaching large numbers of New Mexico Facebook users, producing a total of almost 43.9 million violations.
Under New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, the maximum penalty is $5,000 per willful violation. Judge Francis J. Mathew of New Mexico's First Judicial District Court imposed the statutory maximum (roughly $219.5 billion) but reduced the award to $25 billion. Interest accrues at 15 percent annually until paid. Meta has said it will appeal.
"Facebook's wrongdoing
