Meta Hit With $375m Verdict In New Mexico Child Safety Case

A jury found Meta liable for endangering children and misleading the public about the safety of its platforms on Tuesday in a watershed New Mexico trial.

According to the New Mexico Department of Justice, which brought the case, this is the first time a state has won a trial against a major tech company for harming young users.

The verdict stipulates that Meta must pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, a consumer protection law.

“Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a press release. “Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. “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.”

The lawsuit originated from an investigation by the Nevada DOJ into Meta’s safeguards against sexual abuse of minors. Social media companies are going to trial in hundreds of similar cases this year to defend against allegations that their platforms are defective products that threaten the safety and mental health of kids.

Suing platforms under products liability laws is a novel legal strategy that regulators and families are pursuing in part to overcome Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields platforms from liability for content posted by third parties.

Meta and YouTube are currently standing trial in another products liability case in Los Angeles, in which a woman is accusing the platforms of implementing addictive features that led her to suffer from mental health problems as a child.