Meta settles multi-billion-dollar lawsuit for harming, deceiving users

The New York Times reports that New Mexico sued Meta in 2021 over the scandal, claiming Zuckerberg’s social media sites had misled users through public statements about data privacy. Following a two-week trial in Santa Fe last month, a jury found Meta violated 43 million consumer protection laws that each came with a $5,000 maximum penalty. 

This is the latest in a string of settlements Meta has made amid the very smooth rollout of its not-insidious-at-all Muse AI. Meta also settled a case with 47 states, agreeing to pay $17.1 billion for endangering children on its platforms, which include Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. In that settlement, Meta agreed to pay $459 million in damages related to Cambridge Analytica. New Mexico was one of the few states still able to sue Meta because it had not settled. The state has found much success suing Meta over consumer protection violations. Over the last year, New Mexico courts have ordered Meta to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages for harming young users through addictive products, in addition to violating their data privacy. Meta is valued at nearly $2 trillion and made $42 billion in profit in the first half of 2026, and all it had to do was make people addicted to its products while violating their privacy.