In a landmark verdict, a jury found Meta guilty of willfully violating New Mexico’s consumer protection laws by misleading users about the safety of its products.
As a result of the verdict, Meta was ordered to pay a fine of $375 million. That is $5,000 for each of the 37,500 violations the company was found guilty of. This is lower than what the state sought, which would have brought the total closer to $2 billion.
The case centered around not only Meta’s ability to keep its platforms safe, but how it advertises the platforms as being safe. New Mexico contended Meta knew its platforms put children at risk of exploitation by others and mental health concerns.
New Mexico set up a sting operation by setting up decoy accounts of fake underage users on Facebook. Based on the investigation, these accounts received numerous friend requests and messages from adult users.
In a unique legal strategy, New Mexico attorney general Raul Torrez argued that Facebook’s design allowed for this to happen. Facebook argued the state’s investigation was flawed and that online content was protected.
With a guilty verdict in hand, New Mexico will now seek court-mandated changes to Meta’s platforms to enhance their protections for underage users.
“New Mexico is proud to be the first state to hold Meta accountable in court for misleading parents, enabling child exploitation, and harming kids,” said Torrez in a statement.
Predictably, Meta said it will appeal the verdict. “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,” said Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan in a statement.
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