Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $US25 billion for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook

In short: (ABC-Australia) A judge has ordered Meta to pay New Mexico $US25 billion after a jury found the company liable for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook. This marks the biggest fine ever against the tech giant. What’s next? Meta’s chief legal officer says the company is confident it will win on appeal. https://www. abc. net. au/news/2026-10-22/meta-ordered-to-pay-new-mexico-us25-billion/107294964 Share article A judge has ordered Meta to pay New Mexico US25billion(35. 6 billion) after a jury found the company liable for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook, marking the biggest fine ever against the tech giant. Facebook’s deception was intentional and executives consistently misled users about how the platform worked, state District Court Judge Francis J Mathew wrote in his ruling on Wednesday local time. “Facebook promised users that they [the users] controlled their data.

This was false,” he said. Jurors in September found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws for making misleading public statements about how it handled users’ personal data. The case was brought after political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested Facebook data to generate targeted political ads during the 2016 election season. The award will serve as a warning to tech companies that New Mexico will hold them accountable, state Attorney-General Raúl Torrez said at a news conference. “This judgment should be a signal, an unambiguous message, to Silicon Valley,” he said. Meta said the ruling and Mr Torrez’s office’s approach to enforcement “makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico”. “At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online. We are…