New Mexico jury finds Meta liable for child harm

What happened

A New Mexico jury on Tuesday found that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health, enabled child sexual exploitation and misled users about the safety of its Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp platforms. The jurors ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for thousands of violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act. It was the first major courtroom loss for Meta in a growing number of lawsuits accusing it and other social media giants of harming or failing to protect young people.

Who said what

The 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,” said a statement from New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who filed the suit in 2023. During the seven-week trial, the jurors “were presented with internal Meta documents and heard testimony from former employees,” the BBC said, including whistleblower Arturo Béjar, who testified that Meta was aware underage users were being served sexualized content and “said his own young daughter was propositioned for sex by a stranger on Instagram.”

The jurors “ordered a maximum penalty for each violation,” The Wall Street Journal said, but “Meta made 160 times” the $375 million fine “in its most recent quarter” alone. Shares of the $1.5 trillion company were “up 5% in early after-hours trading following the verdict,” The Associated Press said. Still, the “landmark decision” in Santa Fe “signals a changing tide against tech companies and the government’s willingness to crack down” on social media’s harms to young people.

“Parents, policymakers and the tech industry watched the New Mexico case closely for its potential to force Meta to change the design of its products,” The New York Times said. But the trial judge, not the jury, will rule on any compulsory changes for Meta at the trial’s second stage in May.

What next?

“We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously,” said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone, and “we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.” A jury in Los Angeles “has been deliberating for more than a week” in a separate “bellwether social media addiction trial” accusing Meta and YouTube of “harming the mental health of a user through addictive design features,” the Times said.