Meta ordered to pay $25 billion to New Mexico for misleading consumers about data privacy

Meta has been ordered by a judge in New Mexico to pay $25 billion to the state after a jury found that the social media company deceived consumers for years about its data privacy policies. 

Judge Francis Mathew handed down the amount, which New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described as “one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history.” 

“These communications were part of a coherent strategy designed to mislead the public,” Mathew wrote.

The case stemmed from allegations that Facebook deceived users about a data breach stemming from a third-party personality quiz that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate targeted ads. 

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

—This is breaking news and will be updated.