Meta ordered to pay $25 billion (about Rs 6.9 trillion) in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case

Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion in civil penalties to the US state of New Mexico in a data privacy case that grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, CNBC reported on Wednesday 21 October 2026, citing a court filing. At today's dollar rate of about Rs 276.86, that is roughly Rs 6.92 trillion.

What the court decided

• In September, a jury in a Santa Fe courthouse found Facebook's parent liable for misleading New Mexico residents about how it collects and protects user data and stops harmful content.
• The jury found more than 43 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act. Each can carry a civil penalty of up to $5,000.
• The filing showed the state was awarded $219.5 billion, which the judge reduced to $25 billion.
• District Judge Francis Joseph Mathew wrote that the number of wilful violations, how long the conduct lasted, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership and the "clear intentional and systematic nature" of the misstatements supported the highest penalty the law allows.
• Interest accrues at 15% a year until the fine is paid in full.

CNBC said it had asked Meta for comment. In an earlier New Mexico case on child safety, Meta said it disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal, so an appeal here would not be a surprise.

Why New Mexico went to trial alone

Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, was accused in 2018 of improperly getting the data of 87 million Facebook users. Meta settled a US class action over it for $725 million in 2022, and in August this year reached a settlement of nearly $17 billion with a coalition of state attorneys general in a separate federal case. New Mexico was not part of that deal, so its own case, first filed in 2021 by then Attorney General Hector Balderas, went to trial in September under the current Attorney General Raul Torrez.

It is the second big New Mexico loss for Meta this year: a March jury found it should pay $375 million in the state's child-safety case, and a judge later ordered $567 million into an abatement fund.

What it means for users in Pakistan

The ruling applies only in New Mexico and changes nothing in Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp settings here. It does add to pressure on Meta over how it handles personal data worldwide. If you want to see which apps can read your Facebook data, open Settings, then Apps and Websites, and remove the ones you no longer use.

Meta shares were up about 2% on the day, CNBC's quote showed.