Meta Ordered To Pay Record $25 Billion in Cambridge Analytica-Linked Case After Judge Cuts $219 Billion Figure

Meta must pay New Mexico $25 billion (£19 billion) after a judge on Wednesday finalised one of the largest privacy-related penalties in Facebook's history, following a trial after New Mexico declined to join a multi-state settlement over separate child-safety claims.

A Record Penalty Years in the Making

Judge Francis Mathew entered the judgement on 21 October, ruling that New Mexico was entitled to $219.5 billion (£167 billion) under state law before cutting the figure to $25 billion. A Santa Fe jury in September found Meta committed nearly 43.9 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, each carrying a maximum $5,000 (£3,752) penalty.

The judgement is the latest courtroom setback for Meta in a bruising year. The award dwarfs the $5 billion (£3.752 billion) the Federal Trade Commission secured from Facebook over the same scandal in 2019, and it lands nearly a decade after Cambridge Analytica harvested data from more than 50 million users to target political adverts during the 2016 US election. Facebook knew of the misuse in December 2015 but did not tell the public until 2018, when a whistle-blower came forward.

One State's Gamble Pays Off

New Mexico's decision to pursue its case at trial contrasts with the multi-state settlement. In August, 47 states and several US territories reached an agreement with Meta worth up to $17.1 billion (£13 billion) over child-safety and social media addiction claims. New Mexico and Florida did not join the agreement, which addressed different claims from the Cambridge Analytica case.

The $25 billion judgement exceeds the announced value of that multi-state settlement, although the two cases involved different allegations. Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who called the result historic, had already won $942 million (£706.88 million) from Meta this year in a separate case over protections for children. Facebook's published breakdown said information from 348,472 New Mexico users may have been improperly shared in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The trial featured a video deposition of Zuckerberg, and at a hearing on 1 October state lawyer Randi McGinn asked for between $35 billion and $40 billion (£26.26 to 30 billion). Mathew landed well below the state's request, but far above every earlier privacy settlement the company has signed.

Zuckerberg's Own Words Sink Meta

Mathew leaned heavily on Mark Zuckerberg's internal messages. The judge found the chief executive knew users struggled to grasp Facebook's controls and exploited it, citing Zuckerberg's own line that people 'probably don't understand their current privacy settings or care about who sees their updates'.

In another message, Zuckerberg suggested the company give users 'a chance to change their privacy settings but obviously don't encourage it'. Mathew ruled that Facebook's controls failed to give users meaningful command of their data, and that outside developers could still reach it.

Meta Vows To Appeal

Meta will challenge the judgement. Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the ruling 'makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico' and accused Torrez of conflating privacy with free speech. The lawsuit, he argued, 'seeks to impose a tax on speech' to police what people say online.

The appeal could run for years, and the sum may yet shrink again. Still, the verdict shows a lone state attorney general can force Big Tech to answer for privacy deception long after the headlines fade, with a judgement exceeding the announced value of a separate multi-state settlement.