New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving the public about Facebook privacy
October 21, 2026 at 05:51 PM
A court in New Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 21, ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving people about how Facebook handled users' personal data and other matters [1][2][3]. Judge Francis Mathew set the amount after a jury verdict in September, and it is the largest penalty ever imposed on Meta [1][4].
The state's lawsuit, filed in 2021, grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the British political consulting firm obtained data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party personality quiz app and used it for targeted advertising [2][4]. The now-defunct firm's clients included Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign [4]. The state argued that statements by executives that third parties never accessed user data without permission were false, and it also took issue with how the company described its handling of hate speech and misinformation [1][2].
On Sept. 25, the jury accepted the state's argument that Facebook's statements about protecting data had deceived not only its users but New Mexico's entire population of more than 2 million people, and found more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law [5]. State law allows a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, and Mathew found that the number of willful violations, how long and how often the conduct was repeated, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership and other factors justified the maximum, putting the total at more than $219 billion before he reduced it to $25 billion [3]. The judgment includes these words [4].
Facebook promised users that they (the users) controlled their data. This was false.
According to the BBC, the judge found that the violations were willful and spanned more than 11 years, from 2010 to 2021, and wrote that communications between senior executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were "designed to mislead the public" [1]. The state had sought $35 billion to $40 billion, while Meta argued that anything beyond about $3.4 billion would be unconstitutional [1][2][4].
New Mexico's constitution directs penalties under the consumer protection law to education [4]. Attorney General Raúl Torrez told a news conference, "We may have paid for the construction of schools for the next 100 years," while acknowledging that the money would be tied up as Meta appeals [4]. In a statement, he stressed that the case "has always been about more than one company or one scandal" and that it was about whether corporations can mislead consumers about what happens to their personal information without facing meaningful consequences [3].
Meta has said since the verdict that it plans to appeal, and its chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the ruling and the attorney general's approach to enforcement make it "all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico," adding that the company was confident it would prevail on appeal [3][4]. He described the lawsuit this way [3].
At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.
The Verge (Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties over the Cambridge Analytica scandal)
It is the second time in six months that Meta has lost a case brought by the state, after a Santa Fe jury in March found that it misled users about young users' safety and ordered it to pay $375 million in civil penalties, and another judge in August, likening Meta to a factory that produces pollution, ordered it to pay $567 million into a state fund for teen mental health [2][6]. Also in August, after a trial began over claims by 29 states that Meta designed its platforms to be addictive to children, the company reached a settlement with nearly all states and territories except New Mexico and Florida to pay $18 billion [4][7]. According to The Associated Press, that settlement included an agreement releasing Meta from future liability related to the Cambridge Analytica breach, and New Mexico was the only state to take the scandal to trial [4].
The new penalty is five times the $5 billion fine the U.S. Federal Trade Commission imposed on Facebook in 2019 over its handling of personal data [1][4]. After the order was announced, Meta shares were trading about 2 percent higher [4].
References
- [1]BBC (Meta fined $25bn for 'lies' over user data privacy)
- [2]The Guardian (Meta ordered to pay $25bn to New Mexico in Cambridge Analytica data-privacy case)
- [3]The Verge (Meta ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties over the Cambridge Analytica scandal)
- [4]PBS News (Meta must pay New Mexico $25 billion, its biggest fine ever, for deceiving users about Facebook privacy)
- [5]PBS News (New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable of deceiving users about privacy protections)
- [6]BBC (Meta told to pay another $567m in New Mexico child safety lawsuit)
- [7]The Guardian (Social media on trial as $200bn case against Facebook and Instagram begins)