A judge in the US state of New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay an additional $567m (£421m) over allegations that the technology giant failed to adequately warn the public about the dangers its social media platforms posed to children.
The latest penalty represents the largest fine Meta has faced in connection with child safety concerns and adds to the substantial legal and financial pressure the company is facing across the United States over the way its platforms affect young users.
New Mexico Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that Meta’s platforms had created harms serious enough to be classified as a “public nuisance”, comparing the effects on children to pollution produced by an industrial facility.
Under the ruling, the $567m will be placed into a fund intended to address existing damage linked to Meta’s platforms and help reduce potential harms to children in the future.
The latest judgment comes on top of $375m that Meta had already been ordered to pay in the same case. Together, the two penalties bring the total amount Meta has been ordered to pay in New Mexico to $942m.
Judge Biedscheid drew a comparison between Meta and a factory, describing advertising and online content as the company’s products, while characterising “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children” as the pollution that needs to be controlled.
Meta, which owns and operates Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, rejected the ruling and said it would appeal.
A company spokesman said Meta disagreed with the judge’s decision and maintained that the company works extensively to protect users on its platforms.
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” the spokesman said.
The company added that it remained confident in its record of protecting teenagers online and would continue defending itself against what it described as claims that did not accurately represent the facts.
Meta previously announced that it intended to appeal the original $375m verdict in the case, making similar arguments about its approach to child safety.
The initial ruling was significant because it marked the first time a US state had successfully brought a case against Meta over child safety concerns.
The company is now facing thousands of lawsuits across the US involving similar allegations, increasing scrutiny of the way its platforms are designed, how recommendation systems operate and the potential effects of social media use on children and teenagers.
Meta has also suffered another major legal setback this year. In Los Angeles, the company lost a landmark case in which a court found that it could potentially be held responsible for designing platforms in ways that encouraged addictive patterns of use.
Judge Compares Meta’s Platforms to Industrial Pollution
The New Mexico case originates from a lawsuit filed by state attorneys in 2023.
Prosecutors argued that Meta should be held responsible for the ways its platforms endangered children, including exposing young users to sexually explicit material and enabling contact between children and sexual predators.
During the first phase of the trial, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act.
The court concluded that the company’s recommendation algorithms could effectively “steer” young users towards harmful material and potentially dangerous contacts.
Recommendation algorithms are automated systems used by social media companies to determine which posts, videos, accounts and other material are presented to individual users.
In the second phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid ruled that the scale and nature of the alleged harm went beyond problems confined to individual users or the company’s platforms.
He classified the effects as a “public nuisance”, a legal concept generally used to describe a widespread health or safety problem that negatively affects the wider public.
The ruling appears to be the first instance in which a social media company has been classified as a public nuisance in connection with harms to children.
The judge compared the consequences of Meta’s platforms with pollution from an industrial factory.
He said the harmful effects on children were comparable to the way “noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air”.
Judge Biedscheid also argued that the effects of social media harms do not remain limited to the online environment.
Instead, he said, they can “migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world”.
According to the judge, the resulting consequences create a broader social burden affecting children and their families as well as schools, hospitals and law enforcement agencies.
The ruling therefore goes beyond imposing a financial penalty and requires Meta to introduce a series of additional measures intended to protect younger users.
$420m Fund to Focus on Treatment and Prevention
A large portion of the new $567m penalty will be directed towards addressing harms that have already occurred.
According to the court order, approximately $420m will be used to support treatment and other responses to the effects allegedly caused by Meta’s platforms.
The money will fund “appropriate clinical or other behavioral health programs and professionals” aimed at helping children and families affected by social media-related harms.
Additional funding will be directed towards education, awareness and prevention programmes.
The measures are expected to include training for teachers, healthcare professionals and others who may be required to respond to the impact of social media use on children.
The judge also imposed a series of requirements on Meta’s platforms designed to limit interactions between children and adults and reduce potentially harmful exposure.
Under the order, Meta must ensure that accounts belonging to users under the age of 18 are not recommended to adults.
The company must also prevent adults from messaging underage users.
Other measures imposed by the court include a ban on underage users sending or receiving nude images through Meta’s platforms.
The ruling also requires Meta to introduce a “one-strike policy” for adult users who engage in child sexual exploitation.
For younger users, Meta must eliminate visible “like” counts, a measure intended to reduce some of the social pressures associated with engagement and popularity metrics.
The company must also restrict push notifications for users under 18.
Notifications will be prohibited every day between 10pm and 7am. During the school year, notifications will also be blocked between 8am and 3pm, except at weekends.
Another major requirement is a mandatory usage limit for underage users.
The order requires Meta to introduce a combined monthly usage limit of 90 cumulative hours across Instagram and Facebook for users under 18.
That works out at roughly three hours of usage per day if distributed evenly throughout a month.
The restrictions reflect growing concerns among governments and courts about the potential effects of prolonged social media use on children, including exposure to harmful material, interactions with strangers and the psychological pressures associated with online engagement.
Meta Faces Growing Legal Pressure Worldwide
The New Mexico ruling comes as governments in the UK and European Union continue to explore tougher measures aimed at protecting children online.
Regulators and policymakers have increasingly focused on the mechanisms that allow children to be discovered, contacted and targeted by other users.
The UK and EU have been pushing social media companies, including Meta, to strengthen safeguards surrounding children’s accounts and limit potentially dangerous interactions.
At the same time, several countries are considering measures that go further by restricting or completely preventing children from accessing social media platforms.
The UK has recently proposed additional restrictions aimed at under-16s, including measures designed to prevent children below that age from accessing social media services.
British authorities have also considered “curfews” that would restrict social media use by older teenagers during overnight hours.
Under proposed arrangements, users could have the option to opt out of certain restrictions, while platforms would nevertheless face greater responsibilities for limiting children’s access during periods considered particularly harmful to their wellbeing.
The growing international focus on child safety comes as technology companies face increasing pressure to demonstrate that their platforms are not contributing to serious harm among younger users.
Meta’s Financial Strength Puts Fine in Perspective
Despite the size of the New Mexico penalty, some technology and social media analysts have questioned whether the financial impact will be significant enough to substantially affect Meta’s business.
Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter, now known as X, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the New Mexico penalty, while substantial, represented only a small amount compared with Meta’s overall financial resources.
He described the fine as “a drop in the ocean” for the company.
Meta reported $61bn in revenue between April and June, representing a 28% increase compared with the same period a year earlier.
The company’s strong financial performance means it has significant resources available to absorb major legal penalties and continue investing in its platforms.
However, Daisley said the significance of the New Mexico ruling went beyond the financial value of the penalty.
He argued that the case was evidence of a wider shift in the way governments and courts are approaching social media companies and the risks associated with their products.
“It’s an indication that we are moving to a stage where social media is going to be tackled around the world,” he said.
Former UK safeguarding minister Jess Phillips also told the Today programme that legal action against major technology companies in the United States could help create greater opportunities for the UK to introduce stronger regulations.
She suggested that successful US court challenges could give British authorities more confidence to take tougher action without being as concerned about potential tensions in UK-US relations.
Another Major Meta Trial Due to Begin in California
Meta’s legal challenges are expected to continue well beyond the New Mexico case.
Another major trial involving the company is scheduled to begin in California next week.
The case involves nearly three dozen US states whose attorneys general are accusing Meta of violating laws designed to protect children’s privacy.
The lawsuit is part of a broader legal campaign targeting major technology companies over their treatment of children and teenagers online.
The cases have increasingly focused not only on individual pieces of harmful content but also on the underlying design of social media platforms, including recommendation algorithms, engagement features and systems that can encourage prolonged use.
The New Mexico decision could therefore have wider implications for future cases against Meta and other social media companies.
By describing the harm associated with children’s use of social media as a public nuisance, the court has established a potentially significant legal precedent for how the consequences of online platforms are viewed.
For Meta, the ruling adds to a growing list of legal battles over child safety at a time when governments around the world are demanding stronger protections for young users.
The company continues to deny that its platforms are responsible for the harms alleged by prosecutors and has said it will appeal the New Mexico ruling.
However, with thousands of lawsuits pending in the US, further court cases expected in California and regulators in Europe and the UK considering tougher protections for children, Meta is likely to remain under intense scrutiny over how its platforms are designed and how effectively they protect younger users.
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