Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion to New Mexico Over Data Privacy Violations
A New Mexico jury found 43 million consumer-protection violations tied to Meta’s data practices, with each carrying a $5,000 penalty. Meta, whose payout would be its largest over Cambridge Analytica, plans to appeal the October 21 ruling.
A judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion to the state of New Mexico on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, following a trial centered on the company’s data privacy practices — marking the social media giant’s largest payout yet related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
A New Mexico jury found that Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, had committed 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection laws. Each violation carried a $5,000 penalty. The verdict followed a two-week trial examining the company’s alleged deception of resident users over how their data was handled.
The case touched on several issues, including Meta’s handling of a third-party app linked to the Cambridge Analytica data breach, its broader data privacy policies, and its efforts to address misinformation on its platform. Cambridge Analytica, an outgrowth of British defense contractor SLC Group, was known for influence operations and political work, including its role in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez commented on the scale of the ruling at a press conference. “We may have paid for the construction of schools for the next 100 years,” he said.
Meta has announced it will appeal the decision. Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said in a statement: “This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico. At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online. We are confident we will prevail on appeal.”
The ruling represents the latest in a series of costly legal consequences stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which has continued to generate significant financial and regulatory exposure for Meta years after the initial breach.