Meta Hit With $25bn Punishment Over Lies Over Customer Data Privacy
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been slammed with the biggest penalties ever for its commercial practices.
A New Mexico court on Wednesday ordered the firm to pay $25bn (£18.6bn) after a two-week trial earlier this year concluded it had lied for years to the public about how it handled Facebook user data. “The lies are not just about Facebook’s data practices,” the court stated, adding that they were “at the heart of Facebook’s core business practices.”
The amount is the largest to far against Meta, which has been fined or agreed to resolve a number of other claims this year, including a $18bn accord with California over kid safety.
The complaint stems from the role Meta, then known as Facebook, had in what became known as the Cambridge Analytica debacle. That firm used Facebook user information in its work as a political consultant, including work relating to the 2016 US Presidential election, which saw Donald Trump elected president for the first time.
New Mexico lawyers sued the firm over numerous statements. For years, Meta officials said they never sold or shared user data with third parties, but they did.
Judge Francis Mathew was straightforward in his ruling, punishing Meta with an amount approximating the company’s quarterly earnings.
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