Meta · Wired · YouTube · Wired
Introduced up, that’s a lot of billions
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That in the most recent New Mexico trial, the state’s attorneys originally asked Judge Francis Mathew to award the state between $35 and $45 billion.
Key facts
- As part of that settlement, Meta will pay the states between $17 and $18 billion over 10 years
- That in the most recent New Mexico trial, the state’s attorneys originally asked Judge Francis Mathew to award the state between $35 and $45 billion
- Even if Meta was forced to pay the total maximum fine of the New Mexico ruling—a whopping $219 billion, or $5,000 across 43 million violations, reduced by the judge to $25 billion—the company
- Earlier this year in New Mexico, a jury ruled that the social media company should pay $375 million for violating the state’s Unfair Practices Act
Summary
Earlier this week, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion fine for violating consumer protection laws dating back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. $25 billion is a massive fine, the largest Meta has ever faced, but it still had them folks at WIRED wondering: Would Meta even feel the pain? A quick recap of the case: Filed in 2021, the suit alleged that the company violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act by lying to Meta users about the way it handled their data. (Later, New Mexico’s attorney general also made claims against Meta’s content moderation policies.) In September, a jury ruled in favor of the state. “This ruling, and the Attorney General's approach to enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. Meta’s legal troubles have proliferated so much this year that it’s hard to keep track of them.
Meanwhile, a Los Angeles County superior court found Meta—and Google-owned YouTube—liable for harming a user’s mental health with the addictive design features of their apps. As part of that settlement, Meta will pay the states between $17 and $18 billion over 10 years.