US Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion Penalty in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica Case
A US federal judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion civil penalty for misleading users about data privacy in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Meta plans to appeal.
US District Judge Francis Mathew in New Mexico ordered social media giant Meta to pay a $25 billion civil penalty on October 21, 2026, for deceiving users about data privacy in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This ruling marks a new scale for state-level enforcement actions against major technology companies regarding historical data violations.
The case stems from revelations in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, improperly harvested personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users via a third-party app to profile voters during the 2016 US presidential election. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued Meta in 2021, alleging violations of state consumer protection laws. A jury found in September that Meta committed more than 43 million violations, each carrying a statutory penalty of up to $5,000.
Although New Mexico law allowed for penalties as high as $219 billion, and state lawyers sought between $35 billion and $40 billion, Judge Mathew set the final amount at $25 billion. Vincent Joralemon, a Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, noted that while the finding of liability is likely to stand on appeal due to damning evidence, the actual damages might be reduced.
Meta Chief Legal Officer CJ Mahoney stated that the company will appeal, arguing the lawsuit seeks to impose a "tax on speech." This decision adds to a series of costly legal setbacks for Meta, which recently agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 48 states over teen social media addiction and faces additional penalties in another New Mexico case involving child safety.