New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m in child safety ruling

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million in fines, bringing the total financial penalty in this case to $942 million. The ruling, issued by US District Judge Bryan Biedscheid during the second phase of the trial, addresses social media harms and addiction, citing risks of sexual exploitation, interference with education, and adverse mental health outcomes for youth. The financial penalty will be directed toward state programs, including youth internet safety training for teachers, school counsellors, psychologists, and healthcare professionals, as well as funding for community-based health centres.

The judge declared Meta a public nuisance in New Mexico, a legal designation typically associated with industrial entities causing environmental harm. This marks the first time a social media company has been deemed a public nuisance in this specific context. The court determined that Meta’s platforms contributed to a crisis impacting young people across the state, with the judge likening the company’s operations to factories and describing the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children on the apps as pollution that migrates from the digital space into the real world.

Meta must remove Like counts from its platforms in the state and restrict the visibility of such metrics to children under 18 unless approved by a parent or guardian. The court also ordered that push notifications to underage users be paused between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and limited their usage to 90 hours per month, which amounts to roughly three hours per day. The court rejected the plaintiff’s request to alter Meta’s algorithms, despite arguments that they create harmful feedback loops.

Meta intends to appeal the judgment. Company spokesperson Andy Stone stated that the company remains confident in its record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend itself against claims that misrepresent the facts. Stone noted that Meta works hard to keep people safe on its platforms and has been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content.

State Attorney General Raul Torrez stated that the company is being held accountable for prioritising engagement and profit over child safety. Torrez said that for years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico’s kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and chose engagement and profit over their safety. The ruling follows another loss in Los Angeles in March, where the court also ruled against the social media company for creating addictive patterns. Meta is facing several other cases, including a joint lawsuit by 33 states consolidated in an Oakland, California federal court, and separate cases in states such as Tennessee.