21.10.2026 22:31
In the US state of New Mexico, a court ruled that Meta must pay the state a $25 billion penalty on the grounds that it misled users about its privacy and content moderation policies. The amount, the largest fine imposed on Facebook's owner, will be transferred to education spending under the state constitution. The case is based on claims linked to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal; Meta is expected to appeal the ruling.
A court in the U.S. state of New Mexico ruled that social media company Meta must pay the state a $25 billion fine for misleading users about its privacy and content moderation policies.
Court Judge Francis Mathew ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion fine after a jury in September found the company liable for violating the state's consumer protection laws.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said at a press conference he held, “This decision should be a sign, a clear and unambiguous message to Silicon Valley.”
FINE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO SCHOOLS
Under the New Mexico Constitution, fines arising from violations of consumer protection laws are transferred to the state's education spending.
Torrez stated that the ruling is large enough to finance the construction of schools in the state for the next 100 years, while acknowledging that the money may not be usable for some time due to Meta's expected appeal.
META'S LARGEST FINE IN HISTORY
According to the report, the state's lawsuit is based on data breach allegations linked to the collection of data from approximately 87 million Facebook profiles through a third-party personality test and its sale to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The fine in question is the largest monetary penalty ever imposed on Meta, the owner of the social media platform Facebook.
DATA OF 87 MILLION PEOPLE HAD BEEN SOLD
Aleksandr Kogan, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, stored the information of 87 million people through a personality test app called “this is your digital life” that operated via Facebook, and sold this information in 2016 to Cambridge Analytica, a company operating for political consulting purposes.
In the scandal exposed by British television channel Channel 4, Cambridge Analytica used the data it obtained to help Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. election.
After the incident came to light, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. Senate.
With the major data crisis, technology companies in particular were forced to review their data policies again in Europe and the United States.