A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion on October 21, 2026, for deceiving users about Facebook’s data privacy and content moderation practices.
Axios reports that penalties were handed down this week after a jury found in September that the social media giant misled users about their data privacy.
The landmark ruling stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed by New Mexico over the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which user data was harvested without consent for political advertising.
JUST IN: A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25B, its biggest fine ever.
A jury found 43.9M willful violations from misleading statements on privacy and safety, worth up to $219.5B. Interest runs at 15% a year until it pays.
The judge called the probe Facebook launched after Cambridge Analytica “willfully ineffective”
Meta says it will appeal.
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) October 22, 2026
Judge Francis Mathew determined the penalty amount Wednesday, handing New Mexico a win as the only state to take its claims to trial after 48 others settled.
The decision follows a two-week trial in September 2026, where a Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws.
Read more Feds Charge 15 Medical Fraudsters In Los Angeles For $2 Billion Healthcare Fraud Schemes
Under state law, each infraction carried a civil penalty of up to $5,000, bringing Meta’s potential statutory exposure to over $219.5 billion. However, Judge Francis J. Mathew reduced the final penalty to $25 billion.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez celebrated the decision, calling it one of the largest corporate financial penalties in U.S. history and a clear warning to Big Tech, according to Reuters.
Meta officials strongly criticized the ruling and announced plans to appeal.
Meta’s chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney, told Axios in an emailed 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.”
Mahoney wrote:
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. In the meantime, Meta will continue to build a safe and free platform to connect millions of Americans, grow small businesses, and help the country maintain its competitive edge.
The legal battle is expected to continue for years through the appeals process, during which interest will accrue on the penalty.
Read more Reining in the National Security Establishment – Euro Edition
