Data protection scandal: Facebook Group Meta should pay a fine of billions

Cambridge Analytica scandal Meta to pay $25 billion fine As of: October 21, 2026 • 10:47 p.m

Eight years after the scandal surrounding the misuse of user data, the Facebook company Meta was sentenced to a billion-dollar fine in New Mexico. The case should serve as a warning to other tech companies, the attorney general said.

The Facebook group Meta has been sentenced to pay a fine of $25 billion because of the Cambridge Analytica data protection scandal. A jury in the US state of New Mexico had previously found that the company had misled consumers about the protection of their data.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal became known in March 2018. Media from Great Britain and the USA revealed at the time that the British consulting firm had analyzed data from around 87 million Facebook users without obtaining their consent. The data is said to have been used by political consultants, among other things, to influence the 2016 elections in the USA and the Brexit referendum in Great Britain in the same year. The team of then US presidential candidate Donald Trump also used it during the 2016 election campaign.

The group is accused of tracking users on third-party websites. more

The state of New Mexico sued Meta in 2021. In late September, a jury found the company liable for making misleading statements about how personal Facebook user data was shared with third-party applications.

The verdict should serve as a warning to other tech companies that New Mexico will continue to hold them accountable, said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. He spoke of “one of the largest, if not the largest, state-level verdict against a company in American history.”

This topic in the program: NDR 2 | News | Oct 21, 2026 | 10:04 p.m