Isophoric News · Thursday, October 22, 2026
New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion in a data privacy case
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion on Wednesday after a jury found the company misled consumers in a case that arose from allegations about the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting, The Guardian reported. Judge Francis Mathew found that a penalty of more than $219 billion was warranted under state law but reduced it to $25 billion, the Guardian said; jurors found on Sept. 25 that 26 of 29 statements by the company and its leadership were misleading and that it committed more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection laws, at up to $5,000 each. Meta said it will appeal, and its chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the ruling "makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico," TechCrunch reported. In court filings Meta had urged the judge to cap penalties at $3.45 billion, saying the evidence showed it does not sell user data and that New Mexico did not prove any consumer was actually misled, according to the Guardian. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said state law directs all of the money to the state's school system, the Guardian reported.