On October 21, 2026, New Mexico District Court Judge Francis J. Mathew ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found Facebook liable under New Mexico’s consumer-protection law.
What the jury found and rejected
The New Mexico Department of Justice said its September 25, 2026, verdict announcement reported 43,899,725 violations of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act. The agency said the jury found deceptive statements about collecting, protecting, sharing and using user data, as well as statements about misinformation, hate speech, Community Standards enforcement and Facebook’s investigations of third-party apps after Cambridge Analytica.
PBS reported that jurors rejected the state’s claim that Facebook made false statements about removing harmful content, including COVID-19 misinformation. Meta’s attorneys argued that New Mexico had not shown residents heard or were harmed by the statements.
Where the penalty goes and what Meta said about an appeal
The Associated Press and PBS reported that New Mexico consumer-protection fines go to state education spending. The $25 billion order is a state penalty, not a payout to individual Facebook users.
Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the company intended to appeal and expected to prevail. The Associated Press reported that New Mexico could wait years to receive the money.
