A jury in New Mexico has found that social media giant Meta misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children. The owner of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp must pay out $375 million dollars in civil penalties.
This is a historic decision, as New Mexico becomes the first state to have held a tech company liable for harming young people.
The state’s original 2023 undercover investigation, “Operation MetaPhile”, resulted in the arrests of three suspected online predators who used the platforms to victimize children.
Later that same year the New Mexico Department of Justice would file a lawsuit alleging that not only are the platforms’ protective policies lax but internal documents obtained by the department from Meta found that the company ignored warnings by their own employees that its algorithms enabled child predators to solicit and harm children.
In a statement released after the verdict, Meta disagreed, saying “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.” They plan to appeal.
However, the state is not yet done with Meta. The Attorney General’s office will bring its final claim to court in early May to seek additional monetary relief and require the company to make specific changes to the operation of Meta’s platforms, including enacting effective age verification, and removing predators from the sites entirely.
On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll discuss what comes during the next phase of the lawsuit will look like and how the state hopes to change social media to protect kids. Do you have questions about how to keep your kids safe on social media? How do you talk to your kids about safe conduct on these sites? Email us at letstalk@kunm.org, leave a voice message by clicking the button below, or call in live Thursday morning at 8.
