Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been slapped with a staggering $25 billion fine by a New Mexico judge following a trial that exposed a pattern of systemic dishonesty.
The ruling concludes that Meta engaged in willful misrepresentations to the public regarding how it handled user data and enforced content policies between 2010 and 2021. Judge Francis Mathew noted that internal communications from senior executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were specifically designed to mislead the public.
While the state of New Mexico had sought up to $40 billion in penalties, the judge settled on $25 billion, citing the company’s repeated violations of state law. Meta’s legal team has predictably vowed to appeal, with lawyer CJ Mahoney claiming the ruling makes it impossible to operate in the state and characterizing the fine as an attempt to tax speech.
This legal defeat is just the latest in a string of regulatory battles for the tech giant, which recently faced an $18 billion deal with California over child safety concerns and a separate $1 billion fine in New Mexico for platform safety issues.
Despite these massive legal liabilities, Meta continues to burn through billions in capital, reporting negative cash flow as it pivots aggressively toward artificial intelligence. Attorney General Raúl Torrez hailed the decision as a victory for accountability, signaling that even the most powerful tech conglomerates are not above the law.
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