OAKLAND, Calif. – A New Mexico jury found the Meta willfully violated the state’s unfair practices laws, which resulted in child exploitation to the tune of more than a third of a billion dollars. 

What we know:

There are many employees inside social media companies working to make them safer, but insiders say market share and money override much of those efforts. 

The New Mexico judge read from the jury’s decision. “Did Meta violate the Unfair Practices Act by engaging in unconscionable trade practices act? The jury’s answer is yes,” said Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid, a New Mexico justice.

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office proved its case to a civil jury that awarded $375 million in damages. Meta’s response through a spokesperson: “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal.”

Local perspective:

Larry Magid is a long-time Bay Area tech analyst, journalist, founder of ConnectSafely and a pioneer in online safety, especially for children. “I think that verdict indicates that there was convincing evidence, at least to that jury, that Meta did fail to fully protect children in ways that would guarantee that they would not be approached by predators.” 

Kaitlin Soule is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist as well as an author. “I think it means that we’re entering a new era hopefully where the tech firms are gonna be held more accountable for creating safer spaces just like we would in public spaces,” said Soule.

The days of blaming parents are over. “What we’ve been feeling as parents and I can speak for myself as a parent of three, is like somehow, we’re doing bad parenting and we are getting it wrong when really the system was rigged in the first place,” said Soule.

What they’re saying:

Folks we met at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal said this, “I think especially with the rise of all the advertisements and just like trying to steal other people, like younger generations or data, and just like things to make you scroll and stay on longer and I do think that is a problem in our society like addicting,” said Clementine Glineur a young social media user. 

“I’ve seen a lot of mental health issues, especially compared in our generation compared to  a lot of other ones. And a lot of mental health ones, such as ADHD, which can really affect not being able to focus well,” said Brittanya Green, another young social media user.

Green says fines are in order. “Paying for it is definitely a start to help with the damages,” she said,

The jury surely believed it. “I think the jury system is the only way that we really get to participate in our government. It’s hands-on; you’re in the room, you’re talking to people who make decisions, you’re hearing evidence,” said Amanda Ebey of San Rafael.

Is the punishment significant? 

 But is it really a meaningful penalty?

“This particular financial judgment is not even a slap on the wrist. If a typical Bay Area family were fined this amount, it would basically be $300 out of their pocket, probably not even a traffic ticket,” said Magid.

But, with so many other states suing, an enormous liability bill would be damaging to both its reputation, share price and loss of freedom from regulation.  

“It’s best probably to have federal rules because they’re doing business in every state,” said Ebey.                                                                                                                                                                           

Magid said many people at Meta are working hard to make it safer, but the bad guys with new ways of being bad are winning the battle so far.

A New Mexico jury found Tuesday that social media conglomerate Meta is harmful to children’s mental health and in violation of state consumer protection law.

The landmark decision comes after a nearly seven-week trial. Jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — prioritized profits over safety. The jury determined Meta violated parts of the state’s Unfair Practices Act on accusations the company hid what it knew about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on its platforms and impacts on child mental health.

The jury agreed with allegations that Meta made false or misleading statements and also agreed that Meta engaged in “unconscionable” trade practices that unfairly took advantage of the vulnerabilities of and inexperience of children.

Jurors found there were thousands of violations, each counting separately toward a penalty of $375 million.

Attorneys for Meta said the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences, while acknowledging that some bad material gets through its safety net.

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told CBS News in a statement Tuesday evening. “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.”  

New Mexico’s case was among the first to reach trial in a wave of litigation involving social media platforms and their impacts on children.

The trial that started Feb. 9 is one of the first in a torrent of lawsuits against Meta and comes as school districts and legislators want more restrictions on the use of smartphones in classrooms.

In a federal court in Southern California, a jury has been sequestered in deliberations for more than a week about whether Meta and YouTube should be liable for harms caused to children on their platforms, in one of three bellwether court cases that could set the course for thousands of similar lawsuits.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in the Los Angeles trial last month, telling jurors that while users under 13 are not allowed on Instagram, it is a difficult rule to enforce because there are “a meaningful number of people who lie about their age to use our services.”

In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming it’s contributing to a mental health crisis among young people by deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook features that are addictive.

New Mexico’s case relied on a state undercover investigation where agents created social media accounts posing as children to document sexual solicitations and Meta’s response.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, also says Meta hasn’t fully disclosed or addressed the dangers of social media addiction. Meta hasn’t agreed that social media addiction exists, but executives at trial acknowledged “problematic use” and say they want people to feel good about the time they spend on Meta’s platforms.

“Evidence shows not only that Meta invests in safety because it’s the right thing to do but because it is good for business,” Meta attorney Kevin Huff told jurors in closing arguments. “Meta designs its apps to help people connect with friends and family, not to try to connect predators.”

Tech companies have been protected from liability for material posted on their social media platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, as well as a First Amendment shield.

New Mexico prosecutors say Meta still should be responsible for its role in pushing out that content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that can be harmful for children.

“We know the output is meant to be engagement and time spent for kids,” prosecution attorney Linda Singer said. “That choice that Meta made has profound negative impacts on kids.”

A slated second phase of the trial, possibly in May before a judge with no jury, would determine whether Meta created a public nuisance and may be ordered to change course and pay for remedies.

The New Mexico trial examined a raft of Meta’s internal correspondence and reports related to child safety. Jurors also heard testimony from Meta executives, platform engineers, whistleblowers who left the company, psychiatric experts and tech-safety consultants.

The jury also heard testimony from local public school educators who struggled with disruptions linked to social media, including sextortion schemes targeting children.

“What this case is about is one of the biggest tech companies in the world taking advantage of New Mexico teens,” state Chief Deputy Attorney General James Grayson told the jury in closing arguments.

The jury was assembled from residents of Santa Fe County, including the politically progressive state capital city.

In reaching a verdict, it considered whether social media users were misled by specific statements about platform safety by Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta global head of safety Antigone Davis.

In deliberations, the jury used a checklist of allegations from prosecutors that Meta failed to disclose what it knew about problems with enforcing its ban on users under 13, the prevalence of social media content about teen suicide, the role of Meta algorithms in prioritizing sensational or harmful content, and more.

New York
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A lawsuit accusing Meta of failing to warn users about the dangers of its platforms and protect children from sexual predators is now in the hands of a New Mexico jury.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023 for allegedly creating a “breeding ground” for child predators on Facebook and Instagram, claims that the company denies. If the jury sides with New Mexico, Meta could be on the hook for billions in damages. A later portion of the case to be presented directly to the judge could also force Meta to make changes to its platforms.

Closing arguments on Monday followed a six-week trial that included testimony from Meta executives and former employees-turned-whistleblowers. Details from the attorney general’s undercover investigation into child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms, which led to three arrests, were also discussed in the courtroom.

The case is part of a wave of legal pressure Meta and other social media platforms are facing over the safety of young users. As jurors in New Mexico state court begin to deliberate, jurors in Los Angeles are considering a separate case against Meta and YouTube accusing them of intentionally creating addictive features that harmed a young woman’s mental health. Social media giants are also facing hundreds of other cases from individuals, school districts and state attorneys general — some of which are set to go to trial later this year.

The New Mexico jury will decide whether Meta has willfully made false and misleading statements about the safety of its platforms or engaged in “unconscionable” practices by knowingly designing its platforms to harm young people.

“I think the jury has seen a lot of what we have known for the last couple of years, and that’s just a treasure trove of evidence that Meta has known about the danger of their products, the danger of their platforms and the way in which they’ve built something that is truly harmful for kids,” Torrez told CNN in an interview ahead of closing arguments Monday.

A Meta spokesperson on Monday pointed to an earlier statement saying that the New Mexico lawsuit “makes sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments by cherry picking select documents” and disregarding the company’s “longstanding commitment to supporting young people.” Meta attorney Kevin Huff argued in court that the company has been honest with users that some bad actors and inappropriate content can slip through its safety filters. But he said Meta employs 40,000 people working on safety and invests heavily in measures to protect young users.

“For over a decade, we’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the Meta spokesperson said. “We use these insights to make meaningful changes – like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with tools to manage their teens’ experiences. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

The New Mexico attorney general’s office created multiple fake Facebook and Instagram profiles posing as children as part of its investigation into Meta. Those test accounts encountered sexually suggestive content and requests to share pornographic content, the suit alleges.

The fake child accounts were allegedly contacted and solicited for sex by the three New Mexico adult men who were arrested in May of 2024. Two of the three men were arrested at a motel, where they allegedly believed they would be meeting up with a 12-year-old girl, based on their conversations with the decoy accounts.

During the trial, the state argued Meta failed to do enough to prevent bad actors on its platforms from contacting kids.

Ex-Meta engineering director-turned-whistleblower Arturo Bejar testified about his efforts to warn Meta executives after he says his own 14-year-old daughter received sexual solicitations on Instagram. And he claimed that the highly personalized algorithms that make Meta’s platforms so successful at serving ads can also benefit predators.

“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,” Bejar said.

Former Meta Vice President of Partnerships Brian Boland testified that he “absolutely did not believe that safety was a priority” to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg when he left the company in 2020. Instagram head Adam Mosseri, conversely, testified that Meta has rolled out safety features such as Teen Accounts despite their negative impact on growth and engagement.

The New Mexico case also raised concerns that allowing teens to use end-to-end encryption on Instagram chats — a privacy measure that blocks anyone other than sender and receiver from viewing a conversation — could make it harder for law enforcement to catch predators. Midway through trial, Meta said it would stop supporting end-to-end-encrypted messaging on Instagram later this year.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the encryption decision.

A Meta spokesperson previously told CNN that “child exploitation is a horrific crime and we’ve spent years building technology to combat it.” Meta’s Head of Child Safety Policy Ravi Sinha testified about the company’s work with law enforcement to prevent and report instances of child exploitation.

The company’s lawyers questioned the legitimacy of the New Mexico investigation, accusing the attorney general’s office of using hacked or stolen accounts and photos of real, non-consenting children to lure predators. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called it “ethically compromised” in a series of posts on X last month.

Torrez called those criticisms a “distraction.”

“One of the most common things is to lash out and try and attack an investigation, rather than to really focus on their own accountability,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something that the jury is really going to fall for.”