A state judge ordered Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to pay a massive $25 billion penalty for deceiving users about data privacy in connection to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Wednesday’s bombshell ruling wrapped up a case first brought by New Mexico’s attorney general in 2021 after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a British firm, had improperly harvested the data of up to 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.
New Mexico jurors found on Sept. 25 that Meta had committed more than 43 million violations of state consumer protection laws through misleading statements about the incident – each carrying a penalty of $5,000 per infraction. US District Judge Francis Mathew was tasked with deciding the damages.
“Facebook’s wrongdoing — over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public — goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Matthew wrote in a 20-page filing explaining his decision.
The case was rooted in 2018 reports from news outlets that found Cambridge Analytica acquired private info about Facebook users without them being aware in order to profile US voters.
The $25 billion was just a fraction of what Meta could have been ordered to pay under New Mexico state law – which allowed Judge Matthew to impose a penalty as high as $219 billion. State lawyers had sought a penalty of between $35 billion and $40 billion.
During the trial, jurors found that 26 of 29 statements made by Meta and its executives regarding the data leak and related issues were misleading.
The judge’s finding is likely to stand up on appeal, according to Vincent Joralemon, Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.
“The fact pattern is pretty damning for Meta, and I dont see much to dispute there,” Joralemon told The Post.
“The actual damages might get reduced on appeal, but the district court judge did a pretty good job trying to make these as reasonable as possible (and already reduced by something like 90% of the maximum allowable under New Mexico law).”
Prior to the judge’s ruling, Meta argued that penalties should be no higher than $3.45 billion – asserting that anything more could cause businesses to flee the state.
Meta’s chief legal officer CJ Mahoney reiterated the sentiment on Wednesday, vowing to appeal.
“At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online,” he said in a statement.
“Meta will continue to build a safe and free platform to connect millions of Americans, grow small businesses, and help the country maintain its competitive edge.”
The decision marked another major and costly legal setback for Meta, which is facing thousands of lawsuits in states across the country related to its business practices, data privacy, online safety and social media addiction.
New Mexico has been at the forefront of the legal crackdown. In March, a state jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after determining it misled the public about kids’ safety on its apps and exposed them to online predators. A judge tacked on an additional $567 million in penalties related to that case in August.
Elsewhere, Meta agreed in August to a historic $18 billion settlement with a coalition of 48 state attorneys general who accused the company of fueling a teen social media addiction and mental health crisis. As part of that deal, Meta earmarked $459 million cover penalties sought by some of the states related to Cambridge Analytica.
Online safety watch Fairplay called New Mexico’s ruling in the Cambridge Analytica case a “landmark penalty.”
“Everyone, regardless of their political beliefs, should be horrified by Meta’s reckless disregard of privacy law and its brazen lies about its practices,” Fairplay executive director Josh Golin said in a statement.
“Every internal document we’ve seen from Meta demonstrates that the company only cares about its bottom line, so we congratulate New Mexico for hitting the company where it hurts.”
With Post wires