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Meta fined $375m for misleading users on child safety
A New Mexico court has ruled against company that owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp
A New Mexico court has mandated that Meta pay $375 million (£279 million) for deceiving users regarding the safety of its platforms for children.
A jury concluded that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was accountable for the manner in which its platforms threatened children and exposed them to explicit content and potential contact with sexual predators.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez described the ruling as "historic," highlighting this as the first instance where a state has been successful in suing Meta on matters of child safety.
A Meta representative, with Mark Zuckerberg at the helm, expressed disagreement with the decision and mentioned plans to contest the ruling.
She stated: "Our efforts are dedicated to ensuring user safety on our platforms and we acknowledge the difficulty in detecting and eliminating harmful actors and content. We remain assured in our ability to safeguard teenagers online."
The jury determined that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading the public about the safety of its platforms for younger users.
The total civil penalty of $375 million was calculated after determining there were numerous infractions of the act, each carrying a maximum fine of $5,000.
Meta is also facing a separate lawsuit in Los Angeles, where a young woman alleges that she developed an addiction to platforms like Instagram and YouTube, owned by Google, during her childhood due to their intentional design.
Thousands of similar legal cases are currently progressing through courts across the United States.
New Mexico's lawsuit against Meta in 2022 claimed the company "guided" young users towards content that was explicitly sexual, depicted child sexual abuse, or exposed them to solicitations for such material, including sex trafficking.
It was asserted that the company achieved this through recommendation algorithms, which are essentially mechanisms that Meta employs to tailor the content visible to users on its platforms.
