A state jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, found on Sept. 25 that Facebook broke New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act 43,899,725 times by misleading users about privacy and content moderation. The Facebook privacy verdict leaves parent company Meta facing penalties that, on paper, could top $219 billion.
Meta says it will keep fighting the Facebook privacy verdict. “We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record,” spokesperson Alex Burgos said, The Associated Press reported.
What jurors decided after a 2-week trial
After a two-week trial in the First Judicial District Court, jurors sided with the state on 31 of 34 counts, States Newsroom reported. They found Facebook misrepresented how much control users had over their data and how it shared that data with third parties.
Jurors also found the company made misleading claims about fighting hate speech and misinformation, applied its community standards unevenly and fell short on investigations it promised after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Those promises included auditing app developers, banning those who misused data and notifying affected users, Dexerto reported. Cambridge Analytica obtained data on roughly 87 million users through a third-party app.
The jury did not side with the state on three counts, including claims about removing graphic violence, fact-checking COVID-19 misinformation and taking down hate-crime posts.
How big could the Facebook privacy verdict get?
New Mexico is asking for the maximum civil penalty of $5,000 per violation. Multiplied across nearly 44 million violations, that ceiling is about $219.5 billion.
The Facebook privacy verdict did not set a dollar amount. District Judge Francis Mathew will decide the penalty at a later hearing, and the final figure could land far below the maximum. The state has said any money would support New Mexico schools, and it also plans to seek an injunction against similar practices.
“Anyone in big tech who thinks that they can mislead and misrepresent the way they do business in New Mexico will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said after the verdict.
The New Mexico Department of Justice called the Facebook privacy verdict “a significant victory for New Mexico consumers” that “holds one of the world’s largest technology companies accountable for its conduct,” according to the AP. The state has more than 2 million residents, and the case focused on statements Facebook made to users there.
Meta’s defense and a string of costly cases
At trial, Meta’s lawyers argued that state prosecutors took company statements out of context, and the company denied selling users’ information, according to Dexerto.
This is the third major New Mexico case to go against Meta in recent months, following a $375 million mental health verdict in March and a $567 million youth-harm abatement order in August. Nationally, Meta agreed in August to pay up to $18 billion to settle a landmark teen-safety case brought by U.S. states, and Facebook users began receiving payments in September 2025 from a separate $725 million privacy settlement.
The verdict lands days before “The Social Reckoning,” Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to “The Social Network,” hits theaters Oct. 9. Read our guide to “The Social Reckoning” and our look at Meta’s Muse Charm AI gadget.
