A US judge in New Mexico on Thursday ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million (£421 million) for failing to warn the public about the dangers its platforms posed to children, marking the largest child safety ruling against the social media company.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said Meta amounted to a “public nuisance” comparable to air pollution and ordered that the money be placed into a fund dedicated to reducing future harms, BBC reported.
The latest ruling comes on top of the $375 million in penalties Meta had already been ordered to pay in the same case, bringing the total fines to $942 million.
In his decision, Biedscheid likened Meta to a factory, describing its advertising and content as the product, while calling “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children” the pollution that must be addressed.
Responding to the ruling, a Meta spokesperson said the company, which owns Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, would challenge the decision.
“We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” the spokesperson said.
“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. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
Following the earlier $375 million verdict, Meta had also said it planned to appeal, offering a similar defense. That earlier judgment marked the first time a US state had successfully sued the company over child safety concerns.
Meta is also facing thousands of similar lawsuits across the United States. In addition to the New Mexico case, the company earlier this year lost a lawsuit in Los Angeles involving comparable allegations.
The New Mexico case originated from a 2023 lawsuit filed by the state’s attorneys, who argued that Meta should be held responsible for the way its platforms exposed children to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.
During the first phase of the trial, the court found that Meta had repeatedly violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by using recommendation algorithms that effectively steered young users toward harmful content and dangerous interactions.
Recommendation algorithms are the automated systems Meta uses to determine and personalize the content users see across its platforms.
In the second phase of the case, Judge Biedscheid concluded that the harms caused by Meta rose to the level of a “public nuisance”—a widespread health and safety issue affecting the broader public.
The ruling not only represents the largest financial penalty Meta has received over child safety issues but also appears to be the first time a social media company has been legally classified as a public nuisance.
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
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