New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $25 billion in privacy and hate speech case

A judge in New Mexico, USA, has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after the company was found guilty of deceiving Facebook users about its privacy and hate speech rules. The jury identified over 43 million violations of state laws. The original penalty sought by the state was $40 billion. The court found that accounts belonging to public figures received lighter scrutiny than those of regular users when hate speech rules were applied. The judge stated that Facebook's irregularities strike at the core of its main business practices. Meta has announced it will appeal the decision, with its legal director calling the fine a "constitutional violation of epic proportions." The company argues the case aims to impose a tax on speech and is confident it will win the appeal.