A New Mexico judge ruled Wednesday that Meta must pay a $25 billion fine to the state, with all funds directed to New Mexico's school system under state law. The ruling follows a September 25 jury verdict finding that Meta and its management misled consumers on user data privacy issues tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which exposed data of up to 87 million Facebook users through third-party apps. The jury identified more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law, which permits fines of up to $5,000 per violation. Meta had sought to cap the penalty at $3.45 billion in court filings. The decision comes as Meta is scheduled to report quarterly earnings after 4:00 a.m. Beijing time on October 22.