rhinokitty
9216
634
3
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/24/meta-new-mexico-jury
Mar 25, 2026 4:14 PM
rhinokitty
9216
634
3
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/24/meta-new-mexico-jury
abtenn3000
Petty cash
GanjalfTheGray
And how much did they make exploiting children? If it wasn't substantially less than $375 million, then this wasn't a penalty. They've still profited off of the exploitation and have no reason to stop because the behavior has been rewarded.
Antifalalalala
This is the part where META spends $7 billion dollars on appeal to get out of the $375 million fine.
iDrawStuff
The Court ordering Zuck to pay his fine:
john306326
Not nearly enough!!
MagmaCarta
That's just a drop in the zucket for them
irisewithredeyes
A slap on the wrist, one may say...
iamarealwizard
Zuck took $80,000,000,000+ and set it on fire trying to make tHe MeTaVeRsE a thing. This is a pittance. Fines like these for negligent companies need to be scalable to their profit margins.
spontaneous9
getthismanabeer
oof
InablueMule
.3% of it's net value?
DavidCisme
Company fines should be targeted at the C-level's and Board members, and set in law that the company cannot pay the fines on their behalf. Then see what happens to corruption levels in businesses
Schtaan
I also have that problem! Want my bank account number??
FishstickPizza
Meta makes 370m to 400m in daily revenue. The fine is a rounding error on their bottom line. Its irrelevant.
yeahhedugit
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NGVwcmZlODFjNHhveHg3bXhkNWF3OW16MDh2OGloNW82andta2V0ayZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/OsfVaOer7N2265YTRF/200w.webp
IGotLordVoldemortsNose
Its a start, now bring in millions of affected younsters to repeat the fines
MadamPuddifoot
It's* but you're right.
Pyrowolf1
I'm hoping other states and federal will follow suit
wadatahmydamie
What’s the value of setting a precedent, and exposing them to further lawsuits? This was one state-level case with limited scope.
Margrave9000
Fines should be relative to total revenue of the whole corpo conglomerate. They are cancer.
shinyspaceslack
Ahahaha in my dreams there is this
cadesama
They went to trial instead of settling. They didn't want the precedent that the money was owed and now they can expect many more lawsuits
MajMalfunction2
That's ok, they made 5 billion in profit from child exploitation so it's still a good business practice.
Remember kids, if the punishment is only a fine, then it's "legal for a price"
hanmerhack
"Let me just grab my wallet, and toss in that statue of Lady Justice for another another 20 thou."
puxorb
They need to fine Meta 375 BILLION to make any kind of difference.
InfocalypseRising
"Meta ordered to pay an amount of money that will not deter them from doing it again"
Cartoones
Literally less than 1% of their PROFITS.... This is not even a slap on the wrist. It's more like a https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1OHU3ZGp2dG9xNmIxNjI2cHQ1cHVzeWlleXI5MXRnbmZ6bnp2Y2FhayZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/EEpym2K5a5DJgLwbF4/200w.webp
MyCommentsUsuallyHaveTypos
That's pennies to them...
WishyMissy
Drop in the bucket for a company worth $1.5 Trillion. No, not a typo, wish it was. Source: NPR
MotoCanuck
That's nothing for the value of the company and it wont fix anything, they just put another policy in the ToS to make them no longer liable.
uplookdont
title should clarify further "that they don't break these laws expecting to get away with it, just that they would maje much more that the fine to the point it doesn't even register on the profit margin
crazyspelling
That's the kind of thinking that ultimately burned McDonalds in their famous hot coffee case!
SJBSavageInk
Good. Now sue them over data theft and run them out of business! Terrible platform that shouldn't exist anymore all the evil they've brought.
RubberMonkeys
If punishment is a fine then that punishment only applies to the poor.
wadatahmydamie
People are missing that this was one case, brought by one AG, after a sting operation. Files obtained in discovery alone will lead to further lawsuits, and substantially larger payouts.
In fighting terms, this was a strong body blow. It’s not a knockout, but their cost will add up in a round or two.
In gaming terms, this just pulled the shield off of the glowing weak point.
shalafi71
There are also legal costs for FB. And, as you said, those costs will compound over time.
wadatahmydamie
Yeah, I’m crossing my fingers that this, plus the backlash against AI, plus the backlash against algorithm manipulation, plus the backlash against Trumpism, plus the collapse of the metaverse is what finally pushes Facebook into AskJeeves territory.
cbomb707
Fines should only be allowed for infractions and misdemeanors. Assigning dollar values to the immeasurable damage this company has done is disgusting. Throw him in prison or you might as well say nothing happened. To be clear, prison for Zuck IS the compromise.
KrisSommer
Hopefully there’s 49 more suits by the remaining states
FlintNorth44
Zuck-heil won't feel this. He needs to feel it.
clemdarkstarzero
FaecalJacksonPollock
That's just cost of doing business to a company of that size.
MoxieMonster
60.5 billion in profit last year
iggylights
I was gonna say that's just couch change for Zuck
HashMaster9k
Yup, 0.00023% of their their holdings. This is the equivalent of fining an average person $14.75.
It does nothing. It changes nothing. All it does it tell them the premium price to do illegal shit and still operate.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
While that's true, this sets a precedent. Imagine if they end up with hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of cases like this. That would end up forcing them to make changes.
SpamYarBlockers
This is the case. That was the penalty. How would there be another case?
hotaru251
yup. so long as we have limits on fines & they don't scale to match the company's value/income they will keep doing shit becasue to them thats just business cost and they STILL make hand over fist mroe than the fine.
OriginalSyn
Meta likely has a "settlement" fund and this amount of money doesn't even out a sizable dent in the dividends.
RainierCamino
Facebook is shutting down their "Metaverse" or whatever that they spent $80 *billion* on. $375 million is nothing for them.
CaptSchmidtGaming
yep. its an accounts speed bump.
kirmokum
not even remotely a bump. it's an ignorable rounding error.
CaptSchmidtGaming
I meant to say accountants
XXXSpork
That’s about 2/3 of their average daily revenue.
wadatahmydamie
Establishing a precedent means this will hurt them considerably more as time goes on. They aren’t likely to win on appeal, but they’ll certainly try.
hotaru251
except it won't.
even if EVERY state fined em the same they still make profit for the year.
When you make literally tens of billions a year a few hundred millino is LITERALLY toilet paper to you.
cadesama
Then why did they fight instead of settling, admitting no fault, and making the victim sign an NDA? They wanted a ruling in their favor because it meant continued profit and viewed settling as a continuing risk where even with NDAs, they would pay out year after year to new claims.
wadatahmydamie
If you want more details, you should speak to a lawyer, but no, that’s not how any of this works. States aren’t going to line up to fine them identical amounts.
What’s going to happen is the thousands of people who have been victimized in ways described in this lawsuit will start retaining lawyers of their own. The legal costs alone will eclipse what they’ve lost here. At least a few of those will be consolidated into class action suits.
Suckerberg will appeal, but that’s just a delay.
hotaru251
no they won't.
most people who are effected can't afford to lawyer up given it ruins them if they lose (which is still possible).
and I know they wont fine them same amount. My point was no matter how many of these "small" fines happen until they start scaling the fines to the profit and/or income made of said company they will still make profit and nothing changes.
wadatahmydamie
Shit man. I’ll let the lifelong corporate lawyers at my firm with literal centuries of combined experience in this exact type of case law know that MortalKombatCharacterNumber says it won’t go anywhere. Thanks for looking out.
Zetor
How are these fines decided/calculated? They always seem ridiculously low for these giga corps.
JokerFrown
age old laws when a burger meal cost like $3.
shalafi71
They're calculated according to existing law. Yes, those laws need to change, but a judge can't just make up a number they deem fair.
livingonagiantfireball
Fine should be a percentage of the business value.
hotaru251
also should keep a record of how many times said company has had issues they lost in court and if it is past a certain amount in a tiem frame it is even higher as they show no care to try and change and should be punished for it.
livingonagiantfireball
Exactly, it shpuld double every time its brough to court, after 3 time to business is seized by the state.