New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion Over Privacy and Cambridge Analytica Scandal

A New Mexico state judge has ordered Meta to pay a staggering $25 billion penalty to the state, marking one of the largest financial judgments ever handed down against a major technology corporation. The ruling stems from a lawsuit initiated five years ago following revelations that the data firm Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested the personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users to assist Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign.

State District Judge Francis J. Mathew issued the order following a jury trial in a Santa Fe state court, which determined that Meta committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. The jury found that the social media conglomerate deceived its users by allowing third-party application developers access to private personal data.

In his ruling, Judge Mathew emphasized the profound scope of the company’s actions, writing that the resulting harm “is difficult to overstate, and goes to the heart of Facebook’s basic business proposition.” The judge detailed a pattern of deception by the company, including unfulfilled promises to conduct exhaustive internal investigations after the Cambridge Analytica scandal first came to light in 2018.

“Facebook’s wrongdoing—over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public—goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Mathew wrote. “It relates to the way in which Facebook induces people onto the platform and ultimately keeps them there.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez praised the judicial decision, characterizing the penalty as a historic financial milestone for the state and a vital check on corporate power.

“For too long, powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law,” Torrez said in a public statement. “We took on one of the largest companies in the world because New Mexicans deserve honesty, accountability, and the protection of their personal information. Today’s result makes clear that no corporation is too powerful to be held accountable.”

Meta immediately pushed back against the ruling and announced plans to mount a formal legal appeal. C.J. Mahoney, the company’s chief legal officer, strongly criticized the judgment and the state’s enforcement strategy in a statement.

“This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” Mahoney said. “At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.”

The massive New Mexico penalty arrives as Meta confronts broader legal challenges across the United States. The company is currently managing numerous lawsuits alleging that its platforms intentionally cause harm to the mental health of children and teenagers. In connection with those separate proceedings, Meta reached a tentative $17 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states, an agreement that would also impose new restrictions on minors’ access to Facebook and Instagram.