Meta failed to protect kids from sexual predators and misled users about its platforms’ safety, violating New Mexico law, a jury found Tuesday in a landmark case.
The tech giant was ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties.
The verdict came after six weeks of testimony from witnesses that included ex-Meta executives, teachers and online safety experts.
New Mexico prosecutors argued that Meta hid the extent of safety issues that kids faced on Facebook and Instagram and failed to enforce its claimed minimum age limit of 13 – even as its algorithms allegedly made it easier for creeps to target kids for online harassment and even sex trafficking.
“The safety issues that you’ve heard about in this case, weren’t mistakes,” state attorney Linda Singer told the jury on Monday.
“They were a product of a corporate philosophy that chose growth and engagement over children’s safety. And young people in this state and around the country have borne the cost,” she added.
Meta said Tuesday it respectfully disagreed 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,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
New Mexico attorneys had been seeking a whopping $2 billion in penalties against Meta for alleged violations of state law barring unfair trade practices. The case, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, was one of numerous trials across the country that could ultimately determine whether Big Tech companies are held responsible for harmful content on their platforms.
Meta strenuously pushed back on the allegations in New Mexico, arguing that it has taken many steps to improve safety and dedicated vast resources toward combating harm.
“Meta has built innovative, automated tools to protect people,” Meta attorney Kevin Huff said during his closing argument. “Meta has 40,000 people working to make its apps as safe as possible.”
Huff described New Mexico’s request for $2 billion in penalties as “a shocking number.”
Meanwhile, Singer told jurors that Meta “has failed over and over again to act honestly and transparently, failed to act to protect young people in this state.”
“It is up to you to finish this job,” she added.
New Mexico’s investigation into Meta’s alleged misdeeds included a sting operation in which officials set up test accounts to probe the company’s safety standards.
Test accounts were allegedly bombarded with adult sex content and outreach from alleged child predators, including “pictures and videos of genitalia” and an offer of a six-figure payment to star in a porn video, the lawsuit claims. Local police made at least three arrests.
Jurors heard testimony from former Meta safety researcher-turned-whistleblower Arturo Béjar, who emotionally recounted how his then-14-year-old daughter received sick messages including “unsolicited penis pictures” shortly after creating her first Instagram account. He also alleged that Meta’s algorithm helped creeps find potential victims more easily.
“The product is very good at connecting people with interests, and if your interest is little girls, it will be really good at connecting you with little girls,” Béjar testified.
Elsewhere, court documents unsealed as part of the case included an internal email in which a researcher warned the company’s executives that there could be as many as 500,000 cases of online sexual exploitation per day on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta is awaiting a jury’s decision in a separate case in California state court, where the company and Google-owned YouTube face claims that they fueled social media addiction despite knowing it was causing a public health crisis. The companies deny wrongdoing.
With Post wires
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