Meta hit with $25-billion penalty for misleading Facebook users about data privacy
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Set us as preferred Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was ordered by a New Mexico judge on Wednesday to pay $25 billion for misleading users about how it collects and safeguards user data.The penalty, one of the largest ever levied against Meta or any other company, is the latest legal hit to the social media giant, which has grappled with lawsuits over allegations of social media addiction and child safety.New Mexico sued the company in 2021 after revelations surfaced that a U.K.
political consulting firm had harvested millions of Facebook users’ personal data without their consent.The major data privacy scandal sparked more scrutiny of Facebook and led to lawsuits, congressional hearings and multibillion-dollar fines.
A New Mexico jury dealt a blow to Meta, previously named Facebook, in September, finding that the social media company committed 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection laws by making false and misleading statements about data privacy protections and efforts to combat misinformation and hate speech.“Today’s result makes clear that no corporation is too powerful to be held accountable,” New Mexico state Atty.
Gen.Raúl Torrez said in a statement.
As part of the jury’s ruling, Meta faced up to $5,000 for each willful violation, according to a news release about the verdict.Meta said in a statement it plans to appeal the ruling.“This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico.
At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.We are confident we will prevail on appeal,” C.J.
Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a statement.Facebook was found to have deceived its users through statements and remarks made on its...