On October 21, 2026, Judge Francis Mathew of the New Mexico State District Court orders Meta Platforms Inc. to pay $25 billion for deceiving users about data privacy, content moderation, and hate speech handling. A Santa Fe jury found Meta committed 43 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine comes after New Mexico opted out of multi-state legal coalitions to pursue independent lawsuits against Meta.
Judge Mathew's $25 billion penalty order
- ▪Judge Francis Mathew calculated Meta Platforms Inc.'s full penalty under state law at $219 billion before reducing the civil fine to $25 billion
- ▪Judge Francis Mathew stated in his court order that internal communications among senior Meta Platforms Inc. executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were designed to mislead the public
- ▪Judge Francis Mathew of the New Mexico State District Court ordered Meta Platforms Inc. on October 21, 2026 to pay a $25 billion penalty for deceiving users about data privacy practices
- ▪Judge Francis Mathew issued the $25 billion penalty order against Meta Platforms Inc. hours before the company was scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results on October 21, 2026
Jury verdict and statutory penalties
- ▪A Santa Fe jury determined after a two-week trial that Meta Platforms Inc. committed 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws
- ▪Under New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, Judge Francis Mathew was authorized to assess civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation against Meta Platforms Inc.
Evidence presented at the New Mexico trial
- ▪Jurors in the New Mexico consumer protection trial against Meta Platforms Inc. reviewed video deposition testimony from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg
- ▪New Mexico prosecutors presented evidence that Meta Platforms Inc. misled the public by exempting certain high-profile accounts from standard content moderation and hate speech scrutiny
Youth harm litigation in New Mexico
- ▪New Mexico became the first U.S. state to win a jury verdict against Meta Platforms Inc. over claims concerning youth mental health and child sexual exploitation
- ▪A New Mexico court previously ordered Meta Platforms Inc. to pay a $375 million civil penalty and $567 million for youth mental health programs over youth harm allegations
State lawsuits against Meta
- ▪New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta Platforms Inc. in 2021, alleging the company lied to Facebook users regarding privacy policies and user data handling following the Cambridge Analytica scandal
- ▪New Mexico declined to join multi-state attorney general coalitions prosecuting Meta Platforms Inc., opting instead to file independent lawsuits against the company
- ▪States and consumers have filed thousands of lawsuits against Meta Platforms Inc. over child safety, social media addiction, and privacy violations
Meta's other legal settlements
- ▪Meta Platforms Inc. paid $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 and $725 million in 2022 to settle Cambridge Analytica data privacy claims
- ▪Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to pay $459 million in summer 2026 to resolve data privacy cases brought by 46 states and two U.S. territories
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