On Wednesday, a New Mexico judge imposed a $25 billion civil penalty on Meta Platforms after a Santa Fe jury found the company had misled users about who could access their data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The jury’s verdict hinged on 26 of 29 statements that the company made, which the court ruled were materially misleading. Meta was found to have committed more than 43 million violations of the state’s consumer‑protection law, calculated from the number of users each statement reached.
Attorney General Raul Torrez said the entire award will be directed to the state’s school system, underscoring the court’s intent to use the money to offset the harms caused by deceptive data practices.
Meta petitioned the judge to cap the penalty at $3.45 billion, arguing that a larger fine could drive businesses away from New Mexico. The court denied the request, citing the jury’s findings and the statutory maximum of $5,000 per violation.
This ruling follows a March trial that ordered Meta to pay $375 million for misleading users about child safety and $567 million for teen mental‑health initiatives, marking the second of six months that Santa Fe juries have ruled against the company.
The judge will finalize the award in a hearing scheduled for the coming weeks, and Meta has signaled it will appeal the decision. The state plans to distribute the funds to education and mental‑health programs across the state.