Full Breakdown
New Mexico Jury Holds Facebook Liable for Deceptive Privacy Practices
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Verdict and Allegations
On September 25, 2026, a Santa Fe jury found Facebook, a platform owned by Meta, liable for deceiving users about privacy protections. Jurors concluded that the company made false statements that affected the entire New Mexico population of more than two million residents. The verdict includes findings of over 43 million violations of state consumer-protection law and more than 2 million violations related to misleading statements about investigations into data-broker apps.
Background of the Cambridge Analytica Breach
The case centers on a third-party personality-quiz app that harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles. That information was later sold to Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm whose clients included the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign. The breach sparked nationwide scrutiny of Facebook’s data-handling practices and led to multiple lawsuits.
Data and Potential Penalties
- Violations: > 43 million (consumer-protection) and > 2 million (misleading-public) findings.
- Statutory penalty: State attorneys are seeking the maximum $5,000 per violation.
- Potential liability: If the maximum penalty is applied to every violation, the total exposure could exceed $200 billion.
- Prior judgments: New Mexico previously secured $942 million in a two-phase trial over minor-safety protections and, in August, Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement in a separate multistate child-safety case that released the company from future Cambridge Analytica liability.
Official Statements & Responses
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said all awarded money will be placed in a fund for the state’s education system and that the state is also seeking an injunction to prevent similar practices.
In a deposition, CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that Meta has “robust systems” for content moderation and that the platforms serve as “forums for free expression.”
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Sources differ on the total number of violations cited by the jury. Some reports specify over 43 million violations of consumer-protection law, while others highlight over 2 million violations concerning misleading statements about data-broker investigations. Both figures appear in the jury’s findings, but the precise breakdown across categories remains unclear.
What’s Next
A judge will determine the monetary award at a hearing scheduled for early October. The state’s request includes both the maximum civil penalties and an injunction aimed at curbing future deceptive data-handling practices.
Verbatim Quotes
- “We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record,” — Alex Burgos, a spokesperson for Meta in an email
- “It’s unlikely that this is going to be the case that effectively penalizes the company in a meaningful way,” — Peter Ormerod, an associate professor of law at Villanova University
- “There’s been a lot of criticism that none of these amounts of money are enough to discipline the company,” — Peter Ormerod, an associate professor of law at Villanova University