SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 22 — A New Mexico judge ruled Wednesday that Meta must pay US$25 billion (RM102 billion) to the state after a jury found last month that the social media giant had deceived users in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to media reports.
The penalty comes a couple of months after Meta agreed to pay US$18 billion to settle claims brought by 48 other states, including allegations tied to Cambridge Analytica.
“This ruling... makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” Meta said in a statement. “We are confident we will prevail on appeal.”
Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm found to have improperly harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, notably during the 2016 US presidential election.
