US judge orders Meta to pay $25B in data privacy case: Report

A US judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties over Facebook's handling of user data in a case involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica nearly a decade ago, the New Mexico Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The ruling follows a September jury verdict in New Mexico that found the social media giant liable for more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law.

The case stems from the 2018 scandal related to Cambridge Analytica, which improperly accessed personal information belonging to approximately 87 million Facebook users.

New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew said the violations were willful and systematic, citing repeated misleading statements by Facebook and the involvement of senior company executives.

The judge reduced an initial assessment of $219.5 billion to $25 billion and ordered that the penalty accrue annual interest of 15% until paid in full, CNBC reported.

The New Mexico Department of Justice said the case extended beyond Cambridge Analytica to Facebook's representations about its data practices and efforts to tackle misinformation and hate speech.

The trial examined statements about user privacy, third-party access to personal information and the handling of harmful content.

New Mexico pursued the litigation independently rather than joining a multistate settlement, the department said.

“Today’s result makes clear that no corporation is too powerful to be held accountable,” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in the statement.