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New Mexico Jury Finds Meta Violated 43.9 Million Laws

By Drooid · Oct 2, 2026, 3:14 AM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

U.S. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez secured a jury verdict that Meta Platforms violated nearly 44 million consumer-protection laws.
The jury counted 43,899,725 Unfair Practices Act violations for misleading statements on data privacy and hate-speech policies.
Attorney General Randi McGinn asked Judge Francis Mathew to impose civil penalties of $35 billion to $40 billion.
Meta’s lawyer Matthew Nicholson argued the tens-of-billions award would violate constitutional due-process protections.

History

Historical Context

In March 2010 a federal judge approved a class settlement against Facebook for privacy violations, an early sign of government pressure on its data practices. That pressure grew, and on December 8 2020 the FTC with 46 states sued Meta for antitrust violations, while New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a 2023 state-level suit seeking billions under the Unfair Practices Act.

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Story summary

U.S. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez secured a jury verdict that Meta Platforms violated nearly 44 million consumer-protection laws.
The jury counted 43,899,725 Unfair Practices Act violations for misleading statements on data privacy and hate-speech policies.
Attorney General Randi McGinn asked Judge Francis Mathew to impose civil penalties of $35 billion to $40 billion.
Meta’s lawyer Matthew Nicholson argued the tens-of-billions award would violate constitutional due-process protections.

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