Meta shocked by $25B fine after N.M. refused to join multistate settlement
22 October 2026 at 17:04
Meta must pay $25 billion to New Mexico after a jury found the tech giant guilty of nearly 44 million violations of state consumer protection laws.
The largest fine to ever hit Meta came after New Mexico Attorney General RaΓΊl Torrez declined to join an $18 billion settlement Meta reached earlier this year with attorneys general in nearly all states.
In his opinion Wednesday, US district court judge Francis J. Mathew said there was no βbright line ruleβ for determining the appropriate penalty for Meta's repeated and willful deception of users since 2010 about their βcontrol of data, third-party data misuse, misinformation, hate speech, and equal enforcement.β


Β© ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Contributor | AFP