Meta: $25 Billion Ruling Follows $17 Billion Settlement

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion last week, a figure that dwarfs the $17 billion settlement attorneys general across the US agreed to this summer over similar claims. The order resolves allegations that Meta misled users about how it handled data, misinformation and hate speech, claims tied to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. The multistate settlement covered comparable claims for $459 million, with payments spread over 10 years.

The $25 billion figure rests on millions of violations of New Mexico's unfair practices law, decided after a jury found Meta had misled users about data protection and content policing. Meta's chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said in a statement that the company is "confident we will prevail on appeal" and called New Mexico's lawsuit an attempt to impose "a tax on speech." A separate New Mexico judgment against Meta totals nearly $1 billion.

Daphne Keller, director of platform regulation at the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology, said settling states may examine which claims they waived. "Assuming that even a fraction of this award gets upheld, then they clearly took pennies on the dollar compared to New Mexico," she said. Florida, which did not join the settlement, obtained commitments on teen usage restrictions that advocates say needed to take effect quickly.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X that the multistate settlement was "a slap on the wrist" and that Florida would hold Meta accountable. Blake Reid, an associate professor at Colorado Law, described the cases as a "move toward state-level tech policy" as Congress has stalled on major tech bills and the Trump administration has favored lighter regulation. He noted that 50 states carry different resources, politics and litigation experience.

Keller said individuals, school districts and tribes with outstanding claims may be encouraged to continue litigating. "Meta actually would go broke because the multipliers are so large," she said. "But any one, or 10, or 50 of them could hit the jackpot." The District of Columbia did not settle its Cambridge Analytica claims and has continued its lawsuit in court.