In a major setback to the social media giant, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms to pay a massive USD 25 billion after a jury found the company had misled consumers in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.
Largest single-state verdict
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said it was one of the largest, if not the largest, single-state verdicts against the company in American history. "Facebook's wrongdoing-- over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public-- goes to the heart of Facebook's core business practices," Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order following the verdict.
Mathew found that a penalty of more than USD 219 billion was warranted under state law, but he reduced the figure to USD 25 billion.
Cambridge Analytica issue
The ruling comes after six other states settled their lawsuits related to Cambridge Analytica, the consulting firm, for USD 459.2 million as part of a USD 17.1 billion multistate settlement Meta reached in August to resolve states' claims that the company's platforms had harmed teen mental health.
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87 million Facebook users data accessed
New Mexico's attorney general had sued Meta in 2021 following revelations that Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.
The state accused Meta of lying to Facebook users in New Mexico about who had access to their data, how the company handles hate speech and misinformation posted on the platform, and other internal policies. The company knew that third parties had broad access to users' personal data, and it tolerated hate speech or other harmful content when it benefited the company's bottom line, the state said.
Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Trump's successful presidential campaign in 2016 and gained access to personal information from millions of Facebook accounts for voter profiling and targeting.
The consulting firm obtained that information without users' consent from a researcher who had been allowed by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that harvested data from millions of its users.
"It has been a long time coming to hold Big Tech accountable," Torrez told a press conference in Albuquerque after Wednesday's ruling. "I think today's judgment is a clear break with that past and a very clear warning to those in this space and beyond that we intend to protect our people and protect our consumers."
(With inputs from Reuters)