New Mexico is small but mighty, as Meta learned today. A judge in Santa Fe ordered the corporate parent of Facebook and other social media sites to pay an earthshaking $25 billion civil penalty.
The penalty is the result of a jury verdict that found Meta had violated the state’s consumer protection laws more than 43 million times. Under New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, each of those 43 million violations could draw a penalty of $5,000. Thus, the startling $25 billion penalty.
In a two-week trial, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez argued that Meta had lied to Facebook users about its privacy policies and had deceived users about its hate speech and moderation policies.
“Among the representations that the jury found unlawful and willful were representations made personally by Facebook’s most senior leadership, including its Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, and its then-Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, District Court Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
“These communications were part of a coherent strategy designed to mislead the public,” Mathew wrote. For example, Facebook compiled an internal “song sheet” to coordinate external messaging by company officials, he wrote.
Meta has paid a number of smaller claims in the past, including $5 billion to settle with the Federal Trade Commission, $725 million to settle a consumer class action and $459 million to settle claims brought by 46 states.
New Mexico declined to take part in those cases, choosing to go it alone in hopes of winning a decisive verdict that would be large enough to inflict pain on Meta — a strategy that paid off in a big way today.
Meta is expected to appeal but the award stings nonetheless and damages the company’s aura of invincibility.
“This ruling, and the Attorney General's approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” said C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer.