A New Mexico state court has imposed a $25 billion fine on Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for deceiving users about the security of their personal data. Judge Francis Mathew, of that state’s court, based his decision on the jury’s verdict that the company had made false promises about who could access user information and how it protected it.
Cambridge Analytica and the international scandal
The case is related to Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm that helped Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and obtained millions of Facebook users’ data without consent to direct political advertising. The revelations, which emerged in 2018, affected 87 million users and sparked a global debate about the use of data in social networks.
Deceptive statements and legal consequences
The jury identified 26 statements made by Meta between 2010 and 2021 as deceptive, including statements by Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Judge Mathew noted that the company maintained those promises despite internal warnings that it could not keep them and allowed certain partners to retain access to data that was no longer shared.
The sentence highlights that Facebook’s behavior affected the core of its business model, based on personalized advertising. Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the fine as one of the largest economic fines against a company in US history in the United States.
Details of the fine and use of the money
Initially, Mathew calculated a fine exceeding $219 million, but reduced it to $25 million. The fine will generate annual interest of 15% until it is paid. The funds will be allocated to New Mexico’s education system, according to Torrez in a press conference. The attorney general warns that an appeal by Meta could delay the availability of the resources.
Meta’s financial stories and competition with the FTC
Meta had already paid $5 billion in 2019 to resolve a case with the US Federal Trade Commission in the United States related to privacy practices, and $725 million in 2022 to close a collective lawsuit related to Cambridge Analytica.
Credits: deultimominuto.com
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