Meta ordered to pay $25B penalty in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case

Sure, but where's the jail time for executives. This may be a bit more than the usual slap on the wrist, but its hardly consequence that actually matters to the likes of Meta. This will keep happening until those at the top are held personally responsible for the crimes they sign off on.

For those who haven't seen, the New Mexico Attorney General released tapes of the depositions for Zuckerberg [1] and Sandberg [2].

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7UC2ie0XIE

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1j4N-3ZkB4

All the states that participated in the class action settlement got $725 million combined.

New Mexico decided to go it alone and gets $25 billion.

Great timing for the AG who’s up for reelection on November 3 (even though it was the previous AG who made the call).

Meta will surely appeal, and will likely get the fine reduced to like 10% of that. But for comparison, in the recent multistate settlement over social media addiction by 47 states for $17 billion, there was a provision in that settlement to get $459 million [1] in exchange for releasing Meta from any state claims related to Cambridge Analytica. So those 47 states got $459 million for what New Mexico will likely get a few billion for.

[1] https://www.techpolicy.press/the-459-million-cambridge-analy...

I remember long ago, you could fully hide your profile from ANY type of search. Now you cannot. I also remember long before they started scanning your face, they added an opt-out checkbox, I'm pretty sure this disappeared for a long time. You know that feature where they'd auto-suggest who to tag? Yea, you could bar them from using your face for that, now Facebook has taken a steaming pile of... on your privacy at levels I've never seen them pull before.

25B is not a small fine. Finally an amount that should make them think twice their harming decisions

It’s hilarious that one of the outcomes of Meta cozying up with the current administration to escape scrutiny at the Federal level has been 50+ state attorneys general prosecuting them instead.

12% of annual revenue (~200B for 2025). Not a small amount.

Holy! This might be the first time I've seen a meta fine that actually feels substantial enough for them to change behaviours. That's impressive.

Stock seems to have shot up ~7% aftermarket so just cost of business.

Any reason why META surged after hours? is that related to this news?

People are not notifying this nearly enough, but Meta is still going up and at it in Brazil [1] during one of the most polarized elections I've ever seen during my time.

Things got so ridiculous that Meta's AI WhatsApp companion would let you generate one candidate's posters, but flat-out deny you the same prompt for the opposition. Of course the bias skewed heavily towards benefiting the alt-right, pro-MAGA party.

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/meta-employees-said-l...

I rarely cry but my eyes just got wet. It feels so good.

That's just New Mexico. I wonder when will the other states step up, and hit them with more fines?

Not enough.

This seems to be a consequence of the Cambridge Analytica. Could it be that we'll see some consequences?

That penalty is almost 1/3 of a Metaverse. That's got to sting!

finally some proper penalty OOMs

They were originally sued for, what, half a trillion?

Pennies on the dollar.

Can they appeal it?

Will Meta be able to apeal?

> While the full amount of the penalty against Meta, based on thousands of violations of state law, was calculated as $219bn, Judge Mathew reduced the penalty to the $25bn fine.

umm when a thief steals and gets caught, we don't just punish them. We also recover what was stolen.

They should also be made to delete all user data collected during the period, and pause similar data collection for x months/years even the ones that fall under their service terms. The price of wrong doing should be high, and for meta deleting historical user data is the highest form of punishment .

Otherwise it's just cost of business.

Anything less than a jail cell is less than the top brass of Meta deserve.

New Mexico DOJ release: https://nmdoj.gov/press-release/the-new-mexico-department-of...

Another example why Third party Advertising needs to be banned and also put on the list of human rights by the UN.

The inbalance between good and bad consequences from third party advertising is just completely broken.

The Cambridge Analytica "scandal" is basically an advertising campaign for Meta itself. Their ad platform worked exactly as designed: it allowed creepy, microtargeted advertisements. Instead of dish soap, peptides, and dropshipped garbage, it sold a political candidate.

Much worse is how Meta enabled a genocide in Myanmar.

It’s crazy how these criminals can get away with it just by paying money. Sure, $25B isn’t peanuts, but this money shouldn’t have belonged to companies like Meta to begin with.

How much is Cambridge Analytica going to have to pay? I'm all for ramming Meta, but I feel like they should be forced to pay the same amount.

Diseconomies of scale.

The original fine was much higher. This is closer to Meta’s hopes than the peoples.

Previously when the EU has ordered US companies to pay penalties of a "few billion EUR" for trade abuse there has typically been a lot of jingoistic outrage here. This one will be interesting to watch.

Pay to play

If they actually pay $25B, I'll eat my hat. Hell, I might even eat two of my hats

So apropos of nothing remember when Zuck bought a castle rather than spend that money on any sort of Facebook account support?

Honestly, this company is uninvestable if you have even a shred of morality.. but, even if you lack morality, you must see the writing on the wall re: their lingering risks.

Meta is the cigarette company of the modern era and if our historians are allowed to write a neutral take on this era, they will likely not be kind to meta.

25 bil is no where near enough for privacy damages, let alone what they'll have to deal with on the addiction damages down the road.

i hate that zuck has his ad empire funding all sort of stupid shit. Nothing can even touch him as long as ad dollars keep flowing.

why are ads so so sucessful on meta platform. i hate it so much.

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Jury based punitive damages are constantly overturned because they are not legal experts and don't understand anything.

Anyone who thinks Meta will actually pay this amount have no clue what they're talking about.

We need tort reform in the US. These nuclear verdicts are causing insurance prices to go up. I forget the statistics, but I'm pretty sure every American citizen is paying a $500 to multi-thousand dollar tax because of giant lawsuits like this. Nowhere else in the world has this problem. Lawyers have too much power with politicians.

Who predicted it would be New Mexico defending the children of the US while seemingly every other state in the country is bought and paid for by pro surveillance capitalism lobbies?

Hopefully those corrupt politicians are paying attention to the NM model and realize they can get more money by beating all the cash out of Meta like a piñata and then regulate the entire industry like casinos and tobacco, with super high taxes and exclusive for really stupid consenting adults only.

That amount will likely be reduced upon appeal ...

Facebook IS a steaming pile of...

and Zuck is PUBLIC ENEMY #1

A good start, yet still far from enough - as long as the punishments are not equal to their revenues generating by these illegal methods , big corporations will never stop exploiting society because to them those fines are just 'the cost of doing business'.