\n<\/p>\n
A jury in Santa Fe on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after finding the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangered children. <\/p>\n
New Mexico attorney general Ra\u00fal Torrez\u2019s office called the decision a \u201cwatershed moment<\/a> for every parent concerned about what could happen to their kids when they go online,\u201d according to a press release issued right after the ruling.<\/p>\n The verdict, reached after a six-week trial, found Meta liable on both claims brought by the state under its Unfair Practices Act. At $5,000 per violation \u2014 the maximum allowed under the law \u2014 the penalty may seem paltry for a company valued at $1.5 trillion by public market investors. But the dollar amount isn\u2019t as important as the fact that this is the first jury verdict of its kind against Meta over harm to young people.<\/p>\n \u201cMeta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew,\u201d Torrez said in a statement following the verdict. \u201cToday the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n New Mexico\u2019s case against the company grew out of a 2023 undercover investigation<\/a> in which state investigators created decoy accounts on Facebook and Instagram posing as users younger than 14. Those accounts were sent sexually explicit material and solicited for sex by several New Mexico men who were arrested in May 2024. Two were apprehended at a motel where they believed they\u2019d be meeting a 12-year-old girl, based on conversations they had with the accounts.<\/p>\n The operation formed the basis of the state\u2019s case. The evidence it produced \u2014 along with internal Meta documents and testimony from former employees \u2014 showed that company staff and outside child safety experts repeatedly raised alarms about dangers on the platforms and were largely ignored.<\/p>\n Some of the most damaging testimony came from people who worked inside the company. <\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> Arturo B\u00e9jar, who spent six years as an engineering and product leader at Meta beginning in 2009, told the court<\/a> (after testifying before the Senate<\/a> years earlier) about his efforts to warn Meta executives after his own 14-year-old daughter received unwanted sexual advances on Instagram. He also testified that the same personalized algorithms that make Meta\u2019s platforms effective at targeting ads could be equally useful to predators.<\/p>\n \u201cThe product is very good at connecting people with interests,\u201d B\u00e9jar said, \u201cand if your interest is little girls, it will be really good at connecting you with little girls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian Boland, a former vice president of partnerships product marketing at Meta who spent nearly a dozen years with the company, testified that when he left the outfit in 2020, he \u201cabsolutely did not believe that safety was a priority\u201d to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg.<\/p>\n Zuckerberg was deposed as part of the case, and a recording of that deposition, which was taken a year ago but shown to jurors earlier this month, offered some of the trial\u2019s more memorable moments. Zuckerberg described research on whether the platforms are addictive as \u201cinconclusive,\u201d a characterization that the state pushed back on, noting Meta\u2019s own researchers found that several product features were designed to produce dopamine responses and increase time spent on the apps.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked whether he, as a parent, had a right to know if a product his own child was using was addictive, Zuckerberg said there was a lot to \u201cunpack in that.\u201d He then noted that he and his wife personally look into whether products are \u201cgood to use\u201d before giving them to their children, and that they \u201calso oversee how they\u2019re used.\u201d His children, he noted, are \u201cyounger.\u201d<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, Meta said it plans to appeal. \u201cWe respectfully disagree with the verdict,\u201d a spokesperson said to media outlets, adding that the company \u201cworks hard to keep people safe\u201d on its platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n The New Mexico case is far from Meta\u2019s only legal headache. Meta and YouTube are also embroiled in a trial in Los Angeles over claims that their platforms are addictive and have harmed young users.\u00a0<\/p>\n That second verdict could come soon. A jury is deliberating in the case, which was brought by a plaintiff known only as K.G.M., a 20-year-old California woman who claims she became addicted to social media as a child and that she suffered anxiety, depression, and body-image issues as a result. (TikTok and Snap were also defendants and settled before trial.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n