New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Violated State Consumer Protection Law
Event Reviewed Automatically reviewed for factual accuracy, tone, and neutrality. Review does not check claims against cited sources. Last reviewed 19 October 2026.A Santa Fe jury found that Facebook made false or misleading statements to New Mexico residents about user privacy, third-party data access and its handling of misinformation and hate speech, in a state lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica data-collection episode. The jury counted about 43.9 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act, leaving the civil penalty to the judge.
State jury finds Facebook misled residents on privacy; penalty left to the judge.
New Mexico sued Facebook in 2021 under the state’s Unfair Practices Act, alleging that the company misled users about how their data was protected and what third parties could do with it. The case grew out of the Cambridge Analytica episode, in which a personality-quiz app collected data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles that was then used by Cambridge Analytica for political ad targeting.
After a two-week trial in Santa Fe, the jury found on 25 September 2026 that 26 of the 29 company statements the state challenged were false or misleading. Besides statements about user control and third-party data access, these included statements about misinformation, hate speech and applying the platform’s Community Standards consistently. The jury counted 43,899,725 violations. Meta said it disagreed with the verdict and would continue to defend itself, and argued at trial that the statements were protected by the First Amendment.
The statute allows a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, with the amount set by the judge. At a 1 October hearing before Judge Francis Mathew, the state asked for $35 billion to $40 billion; Meta argued that a penalty of that scale would violate constitutional limits on excessive fines.
Sources
- 01.
Schuettler, M. (2026). New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy protections. Published 25 September 2026, the day of the verdict. Source for the Santa Fe jury finding more than 43 million violations of state consumer protection law, the lawsuit's 2021 filing, the trial's focus on the personality-quiz app that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles for Cambridge Analytica, the penalty being left to the judge with the state seeking the $5,000-per-violation maximum, and Meta's statement that it disagreed with the verdict.
- 02.
SecurityWeek (Associated Press). New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Liable for Deceiving Users About Privacy Protections. (2026). Republication of the same AP report. Source for the two-week trial and the statement by Meta spokesperson Alex Burgos: 'We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record.'
- 03.
Johnson, M. (2026). Meta Misled Facebook Users About Data Practices, New Mexico Jury Finds. Source for the jury finding 26 of 29 challenged statements false or misleading, the count of 43,899,725 violations of the Unfair Practices Act, the categories of statements (user control over sharing, third-party data access, misinformation and hate speech, consistent enforcement of Community Standards), Judge Francis Mathew presiding, and Meta's First Amendment argument.
- 04.
Duhownik, J. (2026). Facebook faced with massive penalties after New Mexico privacy verdict. Published 1 October 2026. Source for the 25 September verdict date, the 1 October penalty hearing before Judge Francis Mathew in Santa Fe County District Court, the state's request for $35 billion to $40 billion, and Meta's argument that a penalty of that size would violate constitutional limits on excessive fines.
- 05.
Mondschein, M. (2026). New Mexico attorneys request judge fine Facebook up to $40B for violating state law. Published 2 October 2026. Corroborates the penalty request at the 1 October hearing and that the jury's findings covered user data, misinformation and hate speech.
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