On Oct. 21, 2026, Judge Francis Mathew of New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties. A jury found the company made misleading statements about data privacy, hate speech, and misinformation policies, producing more than 43 million violations of state consumer-protection law.
The case, filed by New Mexico Attorney General RaĂşl Torrez in 2021, traces to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the broader question of whether Meta’s public assurances about data handling reflected its actual practices.
How 43 Million Violations Become $25 Billion
The penalty math starts at a staggering theoretical ceiling and lands well below it, but $25 billion is still the number on the order.
New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act permits civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation. According to a court filing reported by CNBC, applying that maximum across more than 43 million violations would have produced roughly $219.5 billion.
The state sought between $35 billion and $40 billion, according to U.S. News. Judge Mathew set the final figure at $25 billion, below both the theoretical ceiling and the state’s requested range, according to the New York Times.
What Meta Actually Said (and Didn’t Do)
The jury reviewed nearly three dozen specific statements and found the vast majority of them false or misleading.
The jury evaluated 29 statements Meta made about data access, privacy protections, and platform safety policies. It found 26 of those statements false or misleading, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The underlying Cambridge Analytica matter involved the harvesting of personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party application, according to Reuters.
Attorney General Torrez said the judgment should send “an unambiguous message” to Silicon Valley, according to U.S. News. He characterized it as potentially the largest penalties ever imposed against a company in U.S. history, though that ranking is his own characterization and has not been independently verified.
What Happens Next
Meta plans to challenge the verdict, keeping the final outcome uncertain.
Meta plans to appeal, a process that could affect both the number of violations counted and the total amount owed. If the judgment holds, the money would go to a New Mexico education fund, per Reuters.
The liability finding stands for now. Other states monitoring a $25 billion outcome under a state consumer-protection statute will almost certainly take note, as will developers behind every surveillance app tracking user behavior without clear disclosure.
