Meta could face a civil penalty in the hundreds of billions of dollars after a Santa Fe jury concluded that Facebook broke New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, Source NM reports.
Jurors in the First Judicial District found close to 44 million violations and agreed with the state on 31 of the 34 counts on the verdict form, according to Source NM. They concluded the company misled users about how much control they had over their data and about its work against misinformation and hate speech. They did not side with the state on claims tied to graphic violence, fake COVID-19 cures and posts after the 2017 Charlottesville attack.
Judge Francis Mathew, not the jury, will set the penalty. The state wants the $5,000 maximum per violation, which Attorney General Raul Torrez said could exceed $219 billion. Torrez has said money from the case would go to a fund for New Mexico schools and students.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021 under then-Attorney General Hector Balderas, grew out of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It follows two earlier rulings against Meta in New Mexico this year totaling $942 million. A Meta spokesperson rejected the verdict, saying the company has a First Amendment right to manage its platforms, Source NM reported.
About This Story
Daily Reports is Brant.One’s news roundup. Each day we gather the New Mexico stories worth knowing from newsrooms across the state, sum them up and point you to the source. This one comes from Source NM’s reporting, and their original story has the interviews and full details.
Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit Source NM’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.
