Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has been ordered to pay $25 billion to the US state of New Mexico after a jury found that the company misled users about data privacy, misinformation and hate speech.
The ruling was issued on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, by New Mexico District Judge Francis Mathew, following a jury verdict that found Facebook had committed more than 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection law.
The lawsuit, filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in 2021, accused Meta of making misleading statements about how it collected, protected, shared and used users’ personal information. The case also examined the company’s claims about its handling of misinformation and hate speech on Facebook.
The case is linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to public attention in 2018 after revelations that the political consulting firm had obtained Facebook users’ data without their consent. The information was reportedly used to support political advertising during the 2016 US presidential election.