A US judge has ordered Meta, the company that owns Facebook, to pay $25 billion in fines over the way the platform handles user data in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, US network CNBC reported on Wednesday.

A US judge has ordered Meta, the company that owns Facebook, to pay $25 billion in fines over the way the platform handles user data in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, US network CNBC reported on Wednesday.

The ruling came after a New Mexico jury decided last September to hold the company liable for more than $43 million in violations of the state's consumer protection law. Judge Francis Mathew reduced the value of the fines from an initial estimate of $219.5 billion, considering that the violations were "deliberate and systematic," and pointed to Facebook's repeated misleading statements and the involvement of company executives.

The case goes back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke out in 2018, after it was discovered that the company illegally obtained the personal data of about 87 million Facebook users. The judge ordered 15% annual interest on the $25 billion fine until it is paid in full.

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