Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion over Facebook privacy

The case: Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued in 2021 after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign obtained data from as many as 87 million Facebook profiles through a third-party quiz app. The state said Meta told users they controlled who saw their information when outside parties had broad access, and also misled the public about how it enforced rules on hate speech. The judge wrote that the misstatements were "willful," spanned more than 11 years, and that messages among senior leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, were "part of a coherent strategy designed to mislead the public," CBS and the BBC reported.

The state's case: Torrez called it "one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history" and said it sends "an unambiguous message" to Silicon Valley. New Mexico had asked for $35 billion to $40 billion, arguing only a sum big enough to move Meta's stock would change its behavior. Under the state constitution, consumer-protection fines go to education; Torrez said the award could pay for school construction "for the next 100 years," though the money would be tied up during an appeal, CBS reported.

Meta's case: Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the ruling "makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico" and that "at its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online." Meta says it will win on appeal. Its lawyers had argued anything over $3.4 billion would violate its constitutional protections against excessive fines and its due-process rights.

Timeline: 2019, the FTC fines Meta $5 billion over Cambridge Analytica. 2021, New Mexico sues on its own rather than join a multistate deal. August 2026, Meta reaches a $17.1 billion multistate settlement over teen mental health, which included $459.2 million to settle six other states' Cambridge Analytica claims. September 2026, a New Mexico jury finds Meta misled consumers. Oct. 21, 2026, the judge sets the $25 billion penalty, hours before Meta's third-quarter earnings.

What's still unknown: The order does not explain how the judge arrived at $25 billion rather than another figure, according to PPC Land's reading of it, a gap that could matter on appeal. The court also put off deciding whether to order changes to Meta's practices until after more briefing. No appeal schedule has been set.

Published Oct. 21, 2026. The 15% interest rate and the judgment's wording come from the court order as quoted by PPC Land; other outlets had not reported those details at publication. Meta says it will appeal, and the money is not expected to be paid while that plays out.