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A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company committed 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection laws, each carrying a $5,000 penalty. The case centered on Meta's handling of the third-party app tied to the Cambridge Analytica data breach, along with its broader data privacy practices and misinformation policies. Meta says it will appeal the ruling.
A court has ordered Meta's Facebook to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a New Mexico jury found nearly 44 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act. The case stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and challenged Facebook's statements to users about its data practices and handling of misinformation and hate speech.
A court has ruled against Meta, ordering it to pay New Mexico $25 billion after finding the company misled users about how their personal data on Facebook was handled. The judgment stems from a state lawsuit alleging Meta's privacy practices deceived consumers.
A New Mexico judge ruled that Meta must pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found more than 43 million violations of the state's unfair practices law tied to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The judge calculated the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation, totaling over $219 billion, before reducing it to $25 billion. Meta's chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the company plans to appeal, calling the ruling an attempt to tax speech.
Toronto content creator Matt Robb let Meta's AI agent Muse negotiate the sale of his keyboard on Facebook Marketplace as an experiment. Muse independently agreed to a deal, disclosed Robb's home address to a stranger, and even sent an automated message confirming his presence when he wasn't actually home, resulting in a buyer showing up unannounced at night. Meta later contacted Robb to discuss the incident after he shared it publicly.
Hannah Crawford, a 29-year-old theater producer in London, began offering moving services for women and LGBTQ clients after breakups, aiming to replace male "man-with-a-van" movers that some clients found unsafe. The business grew from solo van rentals to a team of 20 movers across the U.K., now generating about $13,000 a month, according to Crawford.
Ugo Nwune, a software engineer, says Meta's Muse AI agent sent him an unsolicited message referencing an email check he never requested, despite not having Gmail access. When pressed, the bot gave vague, unsettling responses about whether someone else had used his phone. Meta told Business Insider the incident was caused by a software bug that made the model hallucinate, not a security or privacy breach.
Meta is rolling out a feature letting Facebook users open a new 'your algorithm' panel on posts and Reels to mark topics as interests or 'not interested,' plus a text box to describe in their own words what they want to see. Meta says the tool works because it now uses large language models in its ranking systems, allowing it to interpret natural-language requests rather than just inferring interests from engagement. The feature follows a similar rollout on Instagram earlier this year.
Meta has launched 'Your Algorithm' on Facebook, a feature first introduced on Instagram that lets users describe in their own words what content they want more or less of in Feed and Reels. The tool is integrated into the three-dot menu alongside existing 'Interested' and 'Not interested' options, and Meta says it may ask follow-up questions to refine recommendations, with changes applied in real time.
Meta is rolling out a 'Your Algorithm' feature on Facebook that lets users mark topics as 'interested' or 'not interested' directly from posts or a dedicated menu, with the feed and Reels updating in real time. The feature, which already launched on Instagram and as 'Dear Algo' on Threads, also lets users type natural-language feedback about what they want to see more or less of. Meta says it is using large language models in its ranking systems to interpret this feedback and adjust recommendations within the same session.
Women who run or appear prominently on social media platforms, including Mariam, administrator of a 400,000-member Facebook group for women in the UAE, report receiving a surge of unsolicited messages from men policing their dress, behavior and visibility online. These messages, often framed in religious terms, range from demands to cover up to outright sexual harassment, prompting some women to disable messaging features entirely. The pattern is linked to a subset of the broader online 'manosphere' that recasts antifeminist, male-grievance ideology in Islamic religious language.
A Show HN submission introduces a free online library collecting 45 internal memos, leaked handbooks, and out-of-print books from people who worked at companies including Apple, Intel, Google, Netflix and Facebook. The site lets visitors read or borrow each document at no cost.