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Cambridge Analytica

Facebook Found Liable for 43.9 Million New Mexico Privacy-Law Violations; Penalty Still Pending

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A New Mexico jury found Facebook liable for 43,899,725 violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act, but it did not decide how much the company must pay. The state law allows a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per willful violation, making $219,498,625,000 the theoretical maximum under the jury’s count—not an award or a reliable forecast of the final penalty.

What the jury found

The September 2026 verdict concerns Facebook, which is owned by Meta. New Mexico’s Department of Justice says jurors found 43,899,725 violations based on willfully deceptive statements about how Facebook collected, protected, shared, and used personal information; how it addressed misinformation and hate speech; and how it investigated third-party apps after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. New Mexico Department of Justice

The figure is a count of alleged violations of the state’s consumer-protection law—not 43 million harmful posts, content removals, or individual users. Nor does it mean the jury accepted every claim the state brought.

Content claims had limits

The state’s account says the jury found some statements concerning misinformation and hate speech willfully deceptive. But the Associated Press reports that jurors did not find the state had proved certain allegations that Facebook falsely claimed to remove harmful content. Those findings are not contradictory: they concern different statements and allegations. Associated Press

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How much could Facebook owe?

Under the penalty framework described by the New Mexico DOJ, the judge may impose up to $5,000 for each willful violation. Multiplying 43,899,725 by that cap produces a theoretical ceiling of $219,498,625,000, or about $219.5 billion. That calculation is not an amount ordered by the court; the judge has discretion to set the actual civil penalty. New Mexico Department of Justice

The latest confirmed status in the cited reports is that the penalty had not yet been established: the DOJ said penalties would be determined in a later phase, and AP reported that a hearing was scheduled for October 1, 2026. The available accounts do not confirm a post-hearing ruling, so it would be inaccurate to say Facebook has been ordered to pay a particular sum. New Mexico Department of Justice Associated Press

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Why Cambridge Analytica is part of the case

New Mexico brought the case over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and broader claims about Facebook’s statements to consumers. AP reports that a third-party personality quiz harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles for Cambridge Analytica, which used the information to build targeted advertising profiles. Associated Press

The state’s September 8, 2026, pretrial announcement described claims involving the data breach and alleged misuse of user information, and said it sought injunctive relief and maximum civil penalties. New Mexico Department of Justice

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Meta disputes the verdict

AP reports that Facebook denied the state’s claims and argued its policies had changed since the suit was filed in 2021. Meta spokesperson Alex Burgos told AP: “We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record.” Associated Press

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez characterized the outcome in the DOJ’s release: “For years, Facebook operated as if the rules that apply to everyone else didn’t apply to them. Today, a jury of New Mexicans said otherwise.” That is the attorney general’s view of the verdict, not a statement about the penalty. New Mexico Department of Justice

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Peter Ormerod, an associate professor of law at Villanova University, told AP: “It’s unlikely that this is going to be the case that effectively penalizes the company in a meaningful way.” That is expert commentary, not a court finding or a confirmed prediction of the eventual penalty. Associated Press

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Do not confuse this verdict with New Mexico’s other Meta case

New Mexico’s March 2026 child-safety case against Meta is a separate proceeding from the September Facebook privacy verdict. The state DOJ says the March case involved 75,000 violations and a $375 million civil penalty, later reporting a combined $942 million financial outcome and court-ordered reforms in that separate case. None of those figures is the penalty for the 43,899,725 violations in the Facebook case. New Mexico Department of Justice

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