SANTA FE: A New Mexico judge on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company had misled consumers over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal linked to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Judge Francis Mathew said state law justified a penalty of more than $219 billion but reduced it to $25 billion. Attorney General Raúl Torrez called it possibly the largest single state verdict against the company in US history.
The state sued in 2021 after it emerged that Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from up to 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app. It accused Meta of misleading residents about data access, hate speech and misinformation.
In September, jurors found 26 of 29 company statements misleading and counted more than 43 million violations. The money will go to New Mexico’s schools.
Meta had sought a $3.45 billion cap. Analyst Gil Luria said the nearly $2 trillion company would likely appeal, limiting any material financial impact. A Meta spokesperson did not immediately comment.
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