New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25bn over user data privacy

In a New Mexico ruling reported in October 2026, Judge Francis Mathew ordered Meta Platforms to pay the state $25 billion after finding that Facebook intentionally misled users about the privacy of their data.

Mathew wrote that Facebook’s “wrongdoing” had been “systematically broadcast to the public” and went “to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices.” He found that state law warranted a penalty above $219 billion but reduced it to $25 billion. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez called the award one of the largest, if not the largest, single-state verdict against a company in US history.

New Mexico sued Meta in 2021 after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British political consulting firm, collected personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app. The firm used the information for targeted political advertising during the 2016 election season while working for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign.

The state argued that Meta lied to Facebook users in New Mexico about who could access their data and how the company handled hate speech and misinformation. Lawyers cited a 2010 Washington Post opinion article in which Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook did not sell user data. The state also alleged that Meta knew third parties had broad access to user information and tolerated hate speech or other harmful content when that conduct benefited its bottom line.

Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said the company was confident it would win on appeal. He said the ruling made business in New Mexico all but impossible and argued that the lawsuit sought to tax speech by enforcing new rules on what people could say online.

Broader litigation

Meta is facing thousands of lawsuits and pressure from lawmakers over the impact of Instagram and Facebook on teen mental health. A trial brought by a coalition of state attorneys general in a California federal court began in August. It concerns claims that Meta engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, as well as claims from 29 states that it illegally collected and used children’s data in violation of federal law.

Six other states settled their lawsuits related to Cambridge Analytica for $459 million as part of a $17 billion multistate settlement reached in August. That settlement resolved state claims that Meta’s platforms had harmed teen mental health. Earlier in 2026, New Mexico won $942 million in two trials over claims that Meta facilitated the sexual exploitation of young people on Instagram and Facebook and misled consumers about platform safety.

Torrez said the judgment should send Silicon Valley an “unambiguous message.” The American Economic Liberties Project called the $25 billion penalty a “drop in the bucket for Meta” while saying it demonstrated demand for accountability.

Source: Al Jazeera.