The Next ‘Major Threat’ To Free Speech Online Could Come From This Court Case

A state attorney general’s legal victory resulted in Meta having to pay a historic-level fine — which may have dire consequences for free expression online, experts say.

New Mexico District Court Judge Francis J. Mathew on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion fine after a jury found that the company had misled consumers about its privacy policies. Democratic New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta’s platform Facebook, claiming that the company mishandled New Mexicans’ personal information.

Free speech advocates warn that this may stifle free speech by threatening fines against those who do not sufficiently crack down on alleged hate speech and misinformation.

“This decision is a major threat to free speech. It would allow a few lawyers in a few states to regulate speech online in violation of federal law and the First Amendment. I hope Meta sticks to its guns and appeals this decision to protect not only its own rights, but everyone’s,” Casey Mattox, a constitutional attorney and vice president of legal strategy for Stand Together, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“This is a historic day for New Mexico and for consumers across the country. For too long, powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law. A New Mexico jury found nearly 44 million violations of our consumer protection statute, and this penalty order demonstrates that those violations carry real consequences,” Attorney General Torrez said in a statement on Wednesday, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice. “We took on one of the largest companies in the world because New Mexicans deserve honesty, accountability, and the protection of their personal information. Today’s result makes clear that no corporation is too powerful to be held accountable.”

Torrez’s office did not immediately respond to a DCNF comment request.

The fine against Meta far exceeds what many national governments have levied against alleged fraudsters and others in alleged antitrust violations.

The $25 billion fine against Meta is more than double the state’s annual budget, per its fiscal year 2027 budget overview and exceeds the largest fine ever issued by the Department of Justice when then-Attorney General Eric Holder issued a $16 billion fine against Bank of America in 2014 for financial fraud leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, per an archived Justice Department press release. Meta’s fine is more than five times the largest fine issued by the European Union, when the supranational government issued a €4.1 billion antitrust fine against Google in July, per Reuters.

Meta plans to appeal the decision, saying that the attorney general seeks to enforce free speech policies.