A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $25 billion in civil penalties following a jury verdict finding that Facebook violated the state’s consumer protection law.
On September 25, 2026, a jury found that Facebook committed 43,899,725 violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The findings concerned statements about users’ control over personal data, third-party access to information, and the company’s handling of misinformation and hate speech.
Editorial Insight
Key Highlights
Important points readers should notice.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties.
A jury found 43,899,725 violations of state consumer protection law.
The case covered user privacy, data practices, misinformation and hate speech.
The lawsuit followed the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Meta plans to appeal the ruling.
The lawsuit, filed by New Mexico in 2021, followed the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which raised concerns about the collection and use of Facebook users’ personal information for political targeting. Cambridge Analytica was linked to the harvesting of data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party application.
On October 21, Judge Francis Mathew set the civil penalty at $25 billion. The state had sought a higher amount, while the court determined the penalty after considering the jury’s findings and the circumstances of the case.
Meta has disputed the ruling and plans to appeal. The final outcome will depend on further legal proceedings.
Editorial Analysis
Why This Matters
The ruling highlights the legal and financial consequences technology companies may face over misleading statements about consumer privacy and platform practices.
