New Mexico is seeking between $35 billion and $40 billion in civil penalties from Meta Platforms over allegations that the company misled consumers about Facebook data privacy practices, according to Reuters. Lawyers for the state made the request on Oct. 1 at a hearing in a lawsuit brought after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in 2018, the report stated [1].
A Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for willfully deceiving consumers, resulting in more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law, according to court proceedings reported by the news agency. The violations were deemed to have affected the state's entire population of about two million people [2].
Judge Francis Mathew is expected to rule later this month on the penalty amount. Attorneys for Meta and New Mexico clashed over the appropriate penalty, with the company arguing the amount sought by the state did not match the conduct at issue in the trial, Reuters reported. At the upper end, the fine would rank as the largest financial penalty ever imposed on a U.S. corporation [2].
Case Stems From Cambridge Analytica Scandal
The case traces to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, which erupted after a whistleblower revealed that the British political consulting firm had obtained data from tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent through a third-party app, according to reports [2]. The case was tried in Santa Fe over two weeks and centered on the company's handling of a data breach tied to a third-party personality quiz called This Is Your Digital Life that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm, according to trial testimony [3].
The data was used for voter profiling and political messaging, including during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the report stated. Frank H. McCourt, Jr. writes in Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age that records show Cambridge Analytica boasting to its GOP clients that, via its Facebook relationship, it had obtained more than 7,000 personal data points on each of 240,000 American voters [4]. Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy months later, while Facebook faced billions of dollars in fines and compensation claims over its handling of user data [2].
The scale of the data breach reflects broader costs associated with centralized data storage. As Sam Ghosh and Subhasis Gorai note in The Age of Decentralization, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was around $4.45 million, a figure that includes costs related to lost business and post-breach responses, and a staggering 82% of data breaches involved data stored in centralized databases [5].
Jury Finds Meta Willfully Deceived Users
The Santa Fe jury found Meta willfully deceived consumers, resulting in more than 43 million breaches of New Mexico's consumer protection law, according to court findings reported by Reuters. The violations were deemed to have affected the state's entire population of about two million people, the report stated [2].
Attorneys for Meta and New Mexico clashed over the appropriate penalty, with Meta arguing the up to $40 billion sought by the state did not match the conduct at issue in the trial, Reuters reported Wednesday. Judge Francis Mathew is expected to rule later this month on how much Meta must pay [2].
Reuters noted that the jury found the Facebook parent company liable for misleading statements about the privacy of users' data just one week before the penalty hearing [6]. The verdict came after a two-week trial in Santa Fe that focused on the company's handling of the Cambridge Analytica data breach [3].
Meta Faces Prior New Mexico Rulings and Broader Settlements
In March, another Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for 75,000 violations related to child safety and ordered $375 million in penalties, according to the report. A local judge later deemed Meta's platforms a public nuisance and ordered an additional $567 million. Meta has said it will appeal the rulings [2]. The earlier verdict was the first to find Meta liable for violating state consumer protection laws by misleading users about platform safety and enabling child sexual exploitation, according to NaturalNews.com [7].
In August, Meta agreed to pay roughly $17 billion to settle claims by dozens of U.S. states and territories that it deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children and misled the public about risks, the report stated. The settlement with attorneys general from 29 states includes child safety measures and a provision that the states agreed not to sue Meta under existing child safety laws over its retention and use of children's data, according to TechCrunch [8]. New Mexico did not join that settlement, allowing its case to proceed to trial [2].
The broader legal effort against Meta has included more than 40 U.S. states alleging the tech giant knowingly and deliberately misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms, according to a 233-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California [9]. Separately, a former Meta employee testified before a Senate subcommittee that the company was aware of harassment and other harms affecting teenage users but failed to address them, according to NaturalNews.com [10].
Big Tech Privacy Litigation Continues
Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, is not alone in facing scrutiny over data practices, according to the report. Last month, TikTok and its parent company ByteDance agreed to pay $400 million to settle U.S. allegations that the platform illegally collected children's personal data without parental consent. Google, Apple, Netflix and other tech giants have also been involved in privacy-related litigation [2].
Privacy advocates argue that centralized data collection creates systemic risks. As Sam Ghosh and Subhasis Gorai note in The Age of Decentralization, security-related costs of centralization include expenses for securing databases, compensating affected users for damages, and fines [5]. The judge's ruling in the New Mexico case is expected later this month [2].
References
- The Epoch Times. "New Mexico Asks Judge to Fine Meta up to $40 Billion in Facebook Privacy Case". October 2, 2026.
- "Meta faces $40 bn data privacy penalty". October 2, 2026.
- NaturalNews.com. "Meta's Facebook Found Liable for Deceiving Users in Cambridge Analytica Scandal". September 29, 2026.
- Frank H. McCourt, Jr. "Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age".
- Sam Ghosh and Subhasis Gorai. "The Age of Decentralization".
- "Facebook deceived users over data privacy – US jury". September 26, 2026.
- Willow Tohi. "A Watershed Verdict: Meta Held Accountable for Platform Harms to Children, Sparking New Privacy Debates". NaturalNews.com. March 26, 2026.
- TechCrunch. "Buried in Meta's $18B settlement is a legal pass on kids' data". August 27, 2026.
- ChildrensHealthDefense.org. "40 States Sue Over Facebook and Instagram Add". ChildrensHealthDefense.org. October 26, 2023.
- NaturalNews.com. "Former Meta director says Instagram FAILED to protect teen users". NaturalNews.com. November 27, 2023
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