Meta lost in Santa Fe. A jury counted 43 million violations. The state asked for $219.5 billion. The judge showed mercy and said $25 billion.
Mercy. Remember that word.
Meta's lawyers had a counteroffer: $3.45 billion. The judge looked at that number and apparently laughed so hard he knocked off $194 billion on principle.
New Mexico has about 2.1 million residents. Roughly 350,000 had their data swept up in the quiz-app mess. That works out to about $71,000 per affected New Mexican. Nobody is getting a check. The attorney general said the money may have paid for schools for the next 100 years. Education. Something Facebook's feed has never once delivered.
Then there is the interest. 15% a year until it's paid. Your credit card is rooting for Meta right now. Your credit card has never been so proud.
Meta's chief legal officer says the ruling makes it all but impossible to do business in New Mexico. Fair. Nobody plans to open a Facebook in Las Cruces anyway. Meta also called the penalty a tax on speech. Twenty-six misleading statements over eleven years. That's not speech. That's a hobby.
The state's general fund runs about $11 billion. Meta now owes more than double New Mexico's budget. The state just got a bigger payout than its own taxpayers have given it all year.
Meta says it will appeal. Its legal team will spend years in court. Some retail trader will spend those years telling you the stock is a buy on the dip. He'll say it with his whole chest. He'll say it from his mother's basement in Albuquerque, which is now technically owned by a school district.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in 2018. Facebook paid the FTC $5 billion in 2019 and said sorry. New Mexico wanted a second apology. It came in the form of five times the first one.
Mark Zuckerberg's net worth will survive this. Your portfolio's opinion of it will not matter. Nobody in Santa Fe asked.
Photo by on Unsplash
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