Meta’s $25 billion legal loss just put blood in the water

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When attorneys general from across the US announced a $17 billion settlement with Meta this summer, the sum was unprecedented. But a ruling last week by a New Mexico judge blew that number out of the water. The judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion to resolve claims that Meta misled users around the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal and related incidents. Similar claims were resolved by the settlement with most other states. The outcome raised an obvious question: Should these states have asked for more?

今年夏天，当美国各地的总检察长宣布与 Meta 达成 170 亿美元的和解协议时，这一金额是史无前例的。但新墨西哥州法官上周的一项裁决彻底打破了这一数字。法官下令 Meta 支付 250 亿美元，以解决有关 Meta 在 2018 年剑桥分析公司丑闻及相关事件中误导用户的指控。大多数其他州已通过和解协议解决了类似的索赔。这一结果引发了一个显而易见的问题：这些州本应要求更多赔偿吗？

The answer depends on a mix of factors, including whether the $25 billion order stands up to Meta’s legal challenges. 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.” If the fine sticks, however, it could create a new appetite for Big Tech’s opponents to stick it out in court — or ask for bigger payouts to settle.

答案取决于多种因素，包括这 250 亿美元的裁决能否经受住 Meta 的法律挑战。Meta 首席法务官 C.J. Mahoney 在一份声明中表示，公司“有信心在上诉中获胜”，并将新墨西哥州的诉讼称为试图征收“言论税”。然而，如果罚款最终生效，可能会激发大型科技公司的反对者们在法庭上坚持到底的意愿，或者在和解时要求更高的赔偿。

“For the settling AGs, they’re going to look at this and maybe experience some regret for all the claims that they waived, and start looking around and trying to figure out what’s left that they didn’t waive, if they can try to get some money like this too,” says Daphne Keller, director of platform regulation at the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology. For the many individuals, school districts, and tribes with outstanding claims, “this is very encouraging and will make them hopeful that continuing to litigate aggressively will lead to a big payout,” Keller says.

斯坦福大学法律、科学与技术项目平台监管主任达芙妮·凯勒（Daphne Keller）表示：“对于那些达成和解的总检察长来说，他们看到这一点后可能会对放弃的所有索赔感到后悔，并开始四处寻找他们尚未放弃的权利，看看是否也能争取到这样的赔偿。”凯勒说，对于许多仍有未决索赔的个人、学区和部落来说，“这非常令人鼓舞，会让他们对继续积极诉讼以获得巨额赔偿充满希望。”

The $25 billion court order covered millions of violations of New Mexico’s unfair practices law, after a jury found Meta had misled users about how it protected their data and policed misinformation and hate speech – claims stemming from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. In most states, such claims were covered by a section of the kids online safety settlement, resolved with a $459 million payment.

这项 250 亿美元的法院裁决涵盖了新墨西哥州不公平行为法下的数百万次违规行为。此前，陪审团认定 Meta 在如何保护用户数据以及监管虚假信息和仇恨言论方面误导了用户，这些指控源于 2018 年的剑桥分析公司丑闻。在大多数州，此类索赔被纳入了儿童在线安全和解协议的一部分，并以 4.59 亿美元的赔偿金结案。

While that number looks comparatively puny, there were upsides to taking it. A settlement provided more certainty and an expedited payout for states even though Meta will be making the payments over 10 years. It also secured product commitments from Meta, like restrictions on teen usage, that might have been more difficult to get from a court ruling. And it allowed those to be implemented soon after the settlement was approved, which advocates say is important to prevent further harm to kids.

虽然这个数字看起来相对微不足道，但接受它也有好处。和解协议为各州提供了更高的确定性和更快的赔付速度，尽管 Meta 将在 10 年内分期支付。它还确保了 Meta 在产品方面的承诺，例如对青少年使用限制的规定，而这些在法院裁决中可能更难获得。此外，这些措施在和解协议批准后很快就能实施，倡导者认为这对防止儿童受到进一步伤害至关重要。