A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving Facebook users about privacy a decade ago. Last month, the company was found liable for not being honest with users about a data breach involving Cambridge Analytica in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

A New Mexico jury found 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection law, and prosecutors sought the maximum penalty of $5,000 for each one. That would’ve resulted in a total judgment of about $215 billion. Meta lawyers argued the company should pay as little as $3.4 billion after the verdict.

Judge Francis Mathew handed down the $25 billion judgment, which Meta said it will appeal. Reached for comment, C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s Chief Legal Officer, told Gizmodo:

This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico. At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online. We are confident we will prevail on appeal. In the meantime, Meta will continue to build a safe and free platform to connect millions of Americans, grow small businesses, and help the country maintain its competitive edge.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke in 2018 , revealing that the firm, while working for President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, had acquired Facebook quiz data on about 87 million users that was then used to target potential voters.

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