In 2020, Mark Zuckerberg quietly spent $419 million turning out Democratic voters.
A New Mexico jury just spent two weeks looking at what he did with users’ data.
That jury just handed a Santa Fe judge more leverage over Facebook than anyone in American history.
Facebook Told You Your Data Was Safe and a New Mexico Jury Said That Was a Lie
Jurors found Facebook committed over 43.8 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act.
The case traces back to Cambridge Analytica – a British political consulting firm that harvested personal data from 87 million Facebook profiles through a third-party quiz app and used it for political targeting.
When the scandal broke in 2018, Facebook didn't come clean.
Facebook made promises.
Mark Zuckerberg took it to Congress and his team flooded the zone with public statements, all delivering the same message: Facebook takes privacy seriously, the problem had been identified, and it would never happen again.
His team promised a full audit of every developer that had touched Facebook data – they would find the bad actors, cut them off, and personally notify every user whose information had been misused.
Those promises came from Facebook press releases, Zuckerberg's own congressional testimony, and the company's public commitments made directly to the American people.
The jury reviewed 29 of them and found 26 were willful lies.
Even New Mexico's Democratic Attorney General Raúl Torrez – not exactly a friend to conservatives – couldn't stomach what the evidence showed.
Torrez said the state will seek the maximum penalty of $5,000 for every single violation.
The math: $5,000 multiplied by 43.8 million violations equals a theoretical fine of more than $219 billion.
The final number is up to the judge.
"The verdict marks a significant victory for New Mexico consumers and holds one of the world's largest technology companies accountable for its conduct," the New Mexico Department of Justice said.
Meta disputed the verdict and said it will keep fighting.
"We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record," a spokesperson said.
Their record of 43 million lies.
New Mexico Rejected the Cambridge Analytica Settlement While 47 States Took the Deal
This verdict is the second time in 2026 that New Mexico has beaten Meta in court.
In March, a separate jury found Facebook and Instagram liable for harming children's mental health and ordered $375 million in civil penalties.
A judge later added $567 million on top of that for youth mental health programs, bringing New Mexico's total against Meta to $942 million – before this Cambridge Analytica penalty lands.
Every other attorney general in America took the Cambridge Analytica settlement. New Mexico said no and went to trial instead.
Forty-seven states signed off on roughly $460 million combined – about $10 million per state – and released Meta from all future Cambridge Analytica liability forever.
New Mexico went through five years of litigation and video depositions from both Zuckerberg and Sandberg to get here.
The other 47 states are sitting home right now doing the math on what they left on the table.
Torrez said every dollar awarded goes directly into New Mexico's education fund, not a law firm's pocket.
Meta Faces a Second Billion-Dollar Trial Over Facebook and Instagram Harming Children
Midway through a separate federal trial in Oakland, Meta settled – agreeing to pay $17 billion to 47 states and add child-safety measures to Facebook and Instagram before the jury could reach a verdict.
Zuckerberg paid $17 billion to make that problem go away.
New Mexico already has its verdict. The jury found what it found. The only question left is how much the judge makes Zuckerberg pay for it.
Facebook built its empire on two promises: your data is safe and your feed is neutral.
New Mexico's verdict just proved those specific Facebook statements were willful deceptions – not mistakes, not oversights, willful.
That word matters because it determines how much the judge can make Zuckerberg pay.
Willful means his team knew the promises were false and made them anyway – and the judge gets to price that decision.
Every American who trusted Facebook with their personal information has a stake in the number the judge writes.
The man who decided what was true on your newsfeed is about to find out what 43 million lies actually costs.
Sources:
- Bill Pan, "New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Liable for Deceiving Users About Privacy," The Epoch Times, September 2026.
- New Mexico Department of Justice, Statement on Meta Verdict, September 26, 2026.
- "How New Mexico's Meta Lawsuit Unfolded Over the Years," Albuquerque Journal, 2026.
