Meta ordered to pay $25 billion to New Mexico for misleading consumers about data privacy

Updated on: October 21, 2026 / 2:44 PM EDT / CBS News

Meta has been ordered by a judge in New Mexico to pay $25 billion to the state after a jury found that the social media company deceived consumers for years about its data privacy policies.

Judge Francis Mathew handed down the amount, which New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described as "one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history."

"This judgment should be a signal, an unambiguous message, to Silicon Valley," Torrez said in a news conference.

In September, jury members found that Facebook had made false or misleading statements by telling consumers that they controlled how their information was shared. The social media giant also misled consumers by claiming it didn't sell or share personal information with advertisers, the jury concluded.

The jury found that the company's "most senior leadership," including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, made misrepresentations about the service's data privacy policies, the judge ruled.

"These communications were part of a coherent strategy designed to mislead the public," Mathew wrote.

The case stemmed from allegations that Facebook deceived users about…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/