New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay 25 billion dollars for privacy violations

A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in fines. The ruling came on October 21, 2026, after a jury found the company had broken state consumer protection laws. The case goes back to the 2016 US election, when a firm called Cambridge Analytica used data from about 87 million Facebook profiles to create political advertisements. It got this data through a personality quiz on the platform, without users' clear permission. The jury found Meta committed over 43 million separate violations. The judge could have set the fine as high as $219.5 billion, but chose a lower amount. Meta had asked to pay only $3.45 billion. The company says it will appeal the decision.