New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion Over User Privacy Deception

 

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta Platforms to pay a landmark $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found the company intentionally misled users about its data privacy practices. The ruling, delivered by State District Judge Francis Mathew, marks one of the largest single-state verdicts against a tech corporation in U.S. history.

The case stems from allegations that Meta allowed third-party developers broad access to user data, enabling the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest information from millions of Facebook profiles without consent ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. While the court calculated the total statutory penalty at over $219 billion based on 43.9 million violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act, Judge Mathew ultimately reduced the figure to $25 billion.

In his ruling, Judge Mathew pointed to internal communications—including remarks from CEO Mark Zuckerberg—suggesting the company deliberately kept users in the dark about how their data was controlled and shared. Meta’s legal team has signaled it will appeal the decision, arguing the penalty sets a dangerous precedent for doing business in the state. This fine follows a separate $5 billion penalty levied by the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 over the same scandal, underscoring the mounting regulatory pressure on the social media giant.