Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Facebook Privacy Deception
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in fines after a jury found the company made more than 43 million deceptive statements to Facebook users about how their data was handled.
New Mexico state District Judge Francis Mathew issued a $25 billion judgment against Meta on October 21, 2026, following a lawsuit brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez. A jury found that 26 of 29 statements Meta made to Facebook users regarding privacy and content moderation were deceptive, amounting to more than 43 million individual violations of New Mexico's consumer protection laws. Judge Mathew wrote that 'Facebook promised users that they controlled their data. This was false.' The case has roots in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the political consultancy obtained personal data from approximately 87 million Facebook users without consent and used it for targeted political advertising. The $25 billion fine is one of the largest privacy penalties ever imposed by a single U.S. state against a company. Meta had long argued that its privacy disclosures were adequate and that it had made significant reforms since the Cambridge Analytica episode, but the jury rejected those arguments. The verdict is expected to be appealed, but it sent a strong signal about the legal exposure that U.S. tech giants continue to face over their handling of user data.
