New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion in data-privacy case

Where Left and Right agree, and where they split

Where Left and Right agree

A jury found 43 million violations and Judge Mathew saw over $219 billion in warranted harm before cutting the figure to $25 billion — both sides treat that drop as the case's central fact.

Where Left and Right split

The left and the right split on whether $25 billion fits the violations or the proven harm.

Why they won’t converge

Both sides accept the same jury count and the same judicial discretion exercised between $219 billion and $25 billion, but disagree on whether deterrence or proportionality should govern how courts translate violation counts into dollar penalties — a values divide no further fact-finding resolves.