A New Mexico judge on Wednesday set Meta's civil penalty at $25 billion in the state's Cambridge Analytica-era privacy case, converting September's jury verdict into a dollar figure. The Santa Fe jury had found 43.9 million willful violations of the state Unfair Practices Act across 34 public statements about data privacy, hate speech and misinformation; at the $5,000 statutory maximum per violation, exposure ran to roughly $219.5 billion.

The state had asked the judge to apply the full rate and then trim the total to $35-40 billion, while Meta argued anything above about $3.45 billion would breach excessive-fines protections. The judge kept the top per-violation rate, calling the misstatements intentional, systematic and repeated over more than a decade, but used the court's discretion to cut the award to $25 billion. Interest accrues at 15% a year until it is paid, and under New Mexico law the penalties fund education spending.

Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the company will appeal, calling the ruling a tax on speech that makes it all but impossible to do business in the state. Attorney General Raul Torrez, who sued in 2021, said the case is about whether companies can mislead consumers about their personal information without meaningful consequences. Barron's noted the timing: the penalty lands just as Meta asks users to trust its Muse agent with personal information from emails to bank statements.