25 billion dollar fine for Meta for deceiving users

BarcelonaA U.S. court has sentenced Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, this Wednesday to pay 25 billion dollars for misleading the public regarding the protection of their personal data.

The case is related to Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and obtained data from millions of Facebook users without consent to promote political advertising, according to a statement from the New Mexico Department of Justice.

Judge Francis Mathew, of a U.S. court in the state of New Mexico, set the fine after a jury determined that Facebook had made misleading promises about who could access user data and how it protected that information.

The revelations about Cambridge Analytica, known in 2018, affected up to 87 million profiles and triggered an international scandal over the use of personal information by social networks and their role in electoral campaigns.

Misleading statements

The trial also examined what Facebook said about its efforts to combat disinformation and hate speech. The jury considered 26 statements by Meta, disseminated between 2010 and 2021, to be misleading, some of which were made by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and the then-Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg.

"Facebook's misconduct, developed over years and systematically disseminated to the public, affects the core of its business practices," wrote Mathew in the ruling.

According to the decision, the company kept these promises despite internal warnings that it could not fulfill them. It also allowed certain business partners to retain access to data that it had announced it would stop sharing in order to avoid losing revenue.

The judge considered that these messages sought to build trust and attract users, whose data is fundamental to the company's personalized advertising business. For his part, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez presented the decision as one of the most significant financial penalties against a company in American history.

Mathew initially calculated a fine of over 219 billion dollars, although he ultimately reduced the amount to 25 billion. The penalty will accrue annual interest of 15% until payment.

The money will be allocated to the New Mexico education system, according to what Torrez stated in a press conference reported by local media. The attorney general has warned that an appeal by Meta could delay the availability of the funds.

Meta, which had already announced its intention to appeal the jury's verdict, paid 5 billion dollars in 2019 to resolve a case with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to its privacy practices and agreed to pay an additional 725 million in 2022 to settle a class-action lawsuit linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.