New Mexico Judge Francis Mathew yesterday, Wednesday, ordered Meta to pay a fine of up to US$25 billion, an amount equivalent to the company’s profit for an entire quarter.
The ruling followed two weeks of hearings. The court found that Meta had deliberately deceived the public about the collection, sharing and protection of users’ personal data for more than 11 years, from 2010 to 2021.
The lawsuit arose from a scandal involving the harvesting of millions of people’s personal data for political campaigns, including the 2016 US presidential election that helped Donald Trump win his first term.
The jury found that Meta had violated New Mexico law more than 40 million times, affecting almost all residents of the state, which has a population of about two million.
In response, Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, strongly criticized the ruling, saying the enormous penalty would make it almost impossible for the company to continue doing business in New Mexico, and announced an appeal. By: រិទ្ធី
