‘Facebook’s wrongdoing’: Why has Meta been fined $25bn in New Mexico?

A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta Platforms to pay the US state $25bn after a court found the company intentionally misled consumers about the privacy of their data. “Facebook’s wrongdoing – over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public – goes to ⁠the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order, which came more than three weeks after the verdict. The judge found that a penalty of more than $219bn was warranted based on state law, but he reduced the figure to $25bn. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said it was one of the largest, if not the largest, single state verdict against ⁠a company in United States history.