A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion fine for lying about user data privacy, related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where Facebook user data was used without consent.
On Wednesday, 21 Oct 2026 GMT+7, a New Mexico court ordered Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to pay a record $25 billion fine (about 840 billion baht), the highest penalty Meta has ever faced in its business operations.
The case originated from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a UK political consulting firm exposed for using personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users without permission for political consulting, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The New Mexico Attorney General sued, alleging Meta executives repeatedly lied to the public by claiming user data would not be sold or shared with third parties, despite such actions actually occurring.
Judge Francis Mathew stated in the ruling that Meta's violations and misinformation were "intentional" and spanned more than 11 years (2010 to 2021). Additionally, communications among top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were designed to "deceive the public."
Although the calculated fines from thousands of state law violations could have reached $219 billion, the judge reduced the amount to $25 billion, roughly equivalent to the company’s quarterly profits.
New Mexico is one of Meta’s major legal opponents. Earlier that year, the state fined Meta nearly $1 billion for misleading about the safety of its social media platforms for children.
The judge in that case likened Meta’s platform impact to an industrial factory polluting the air, but in the form of "psychological harm and exploitation of children."
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Source:bbc