New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion for Deceiving Users About Privacy After Cambridge Analytica

On Oct. 21, 2026, New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion in civil penalties under the Unfair Practices Act, with 15% interest accruing annually until it pays. A Santa Fe jury had found in September that Facebook committed over 43 million violations of state consumer protection law in its statements about users’ control of their data, its fight against hate speech and misinformation, the uniform application of its community standards, and its investigation after the Cambridge Analytica breach, which harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles. The jury sided with the state on 31 out of 34 counts; it found the state had not proved that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content. The judge wrote that the trial record, including “the clearly intentional and systematic nature of Facebook’s repeated misstatements,” supported the highest level of penalty, about $219.5 billion at the Act’s $5,000 cap per violation, and entered $25 billion. The state had sought $35 billion to $40 billion; Meta argued for no more than $3.4 billion. Meta’s chief legal officer said: “We are confident we will prevail on appeal.”

New Mexico got here by refusing the multistate route. In August, 48 other states signed an $18 billion settlement that included a release of Meta from future liability related to Cambridge Analytica; New Mexico and Florida did not sign. Accountability here came from a state consumer-protection statute and a jury, not from a federal regulator (2018-03-17–cambridge-analytica-scandal-exposed, 2018-03-16–facebook-suspends-cambridge-analytica-wylie-whistleblower).