OMM Newsroom
“Meta”, the company behind “Facebook”, “Instagram” and “WhatsApp”, has been ordered to pay $25bn (£18.6bn) in the largest fine imposed on it over its business practices.
A judge in New Mexico issued the order on Wednesday, following a two-week trial earlier this year that found the company had spent years misleading the public about its handling of “Facebook” user data, according to the BBC.
“The lies extend beyond Facebook’s data practices as well,” the judge said, adding that they went to “the heart of Facebook’s core business practices”.
The case arose from the role of “Meta”, then known as “Facebook”, in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The political consultancy used information about “Facebook” users in its work, including work related to the 2016 US presidential election, won by Donald Trump.
New Mexico lawyers sued “Meta” over statements made by its executives over the years that user data was never sold or shared with third parties, when it had been.
Judge Francis Mathew said the company’s violations of the law and misrepresentations about how “Facebook” data was used and shared were “willful” and continued for “more than 11 years”, from 2010 to 2021.
In his order, Mathew wrote that communications among senior executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were “designed to mislead the public”.
The penalty, calculated at $219bn based on thousands of alleged violations of state law, was reduced by the judge to $25bn. The amount is roughly equal to “Meta”’s profits in a quarter.
A “Meta” spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has faced several other lawsuits this year, resulting in fines or settlements. These include an $18bn agreement with California over child safety. New Mexico also fined “Meta” almost $1bn this year for misleading the public about the safety of its social media platforms for children.
The judge overseeing the New Mexico child-safety case compared “Meta” to an industrial air polluter, describing the company’s form of pollution as “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children”.
