New Mexico Judge Slaps Meta With $25 Billion Penalty

The legal action stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed by New Mexico regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the political consulting firm harvested data from millions of Facebook users without consent. During the proceedings, the court identified an extraordinary volume of willful misconduct, with each violation carrying a penalty of up to $5,000. Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated the verdict confirms that no corporation remains beyond the reach of legal accountability.

This ruling adds to a mounting pile of litigation for the tech giant. While Meta previously settled claims from 47 states regarding platform addiction in children for $17.1 billion, that agreement included only a fraction of the costs associated with Cambridge Analytica privacy claims. With an additional $567 million judgment issued in a separate state case just last August, the company faces an increasingly expensive landscape of regulatory pushback.