Mark Zuckerberg's behemoth social media company, which houses Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, lost BIG in New Mexico court today. The lawsuit is the first of its kind - a state sued and won against a major tech company for the harm its platform caused young people.
The jury ordered Meta to pay the maximum penalty - $5,000 per violation - which totaled $375 million in civil penalties. Meta was specifically found liable for misleading consumers about the safety of their platform, which included child sexual exploitation.
Following the verdict, New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez put out a statement:
"The jury’s verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety. Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew. Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”
The lawsuit followed a massive investigation by the Guardian, published in April 2023, that showed how Facebook and Instagram were being exploited for child sex trafficking.
Meta plans to appeal and put out a statement saying:
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
The problem is this: Meta KNEW this was going on. Their own internal documents and testimony revealed the employees and external child safety experts REPEATEDLY warned Meta about the risks posed to users by Meta due to their lack of controls, due diligence and own policies.
Following this massive win, the attorney general will have another phase in court: Seeking additional financial penalties AND court-mandated changes to Meta's sites to protect children.
Some of the features they may propose include: effective age verification, a stronger focus on removing predators and abusers from the platforms and preventing minors from communicating over encrypted channels on the platforms.
Social media sites have tried for years to absolve themselves from all responsibility, saying that they are shielded under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Meta tried, unsuccessfully, to have the case thrown out under Section 230, but failed.
Meta is facing another lawsuit in Los Angeles on the same topic: harm to children. That lawsuit alleges that Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube have intentionally designed their platforms to be "addictive" to children, which has contributed to a spike in depression, eating disorders, self harm and other serious mental health conditions. In the Los Angeles case, Snap and TikTok settled. Meta and YouTube refused to settle and went to trial.
The jury in that case is actually still deliberating.
