New Mexico's $25B Meta judgment draws 'tax on speech' charge

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's 5:30 Eastern, this is The Pile-On.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA judge in Santa Fe ordered Meta to pay New Mexico twenty-five billion dollars, after a jury found more than forty-three million violations.

3. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorTwenty-five billion is a bargain. The judge calculated two hundred nineteen point five billion under state law and then reduced it.

4. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThat's a nearly two hundred billion dollar discount, and we're calling it moderate.

5. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistI find that deeply personal. Somebody looked at a number that size and said, let's be reasonable. Nobody has ever said that to me.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe state had asked for between thirty-five and forty-five billion.

7. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSo the judge undercut the state and the company in one afternoon. Meta's lawyer says it's a tax on speech.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorForty-three million violations, each up to five thousand dollars, and he calls it speech.

9. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistLet me finish, because the New York Post says the attorney general got into politics on a Soros-backed super PAC, so the whole front is political!

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorForty-eight other states settled. New Mexico went to court on its own.

11. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorBrave. I've saved you a seat in my shelter, Hank, the one with the good kettle.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's kind. I've made my own arrangements.

13. 

    Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistThe attorney general says the money could build schools for a hundred years, but it's tied up if Meta appeals, and Meta says it will.

14. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA hundred years of schools, and the first thing they're building is an appeals process. Lovely.

15. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorForty-three million violations, and the judge's only mercy was arithmetic. We're back same time tomorrow.