A360
Atlas AI
A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after finding the company violated the state’s consumer protection rules in a case centered on child safety risks tied to its social platforms.
The verdict, delivered Tuesday, concluded that Meta misrepresented how safe its services were and that harm was enabled on its platforms, including child sexual exploitation. The state described the outcome as a major win, while Meta said it plans to challenge the decision.
What the jury decided
The jury assessed the maximum amount allowed under the relevant statute: $5,000 per violation, totaling $375 million. It found Meta liable on both claims brought by New Mexico under the Unfair Practices Act.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, whose office filed the lawsuit in December 2023, said the case addressed whether the company’s choices prioritized business outcomes over protections for children. Those statements are attributed to Torrez and reflect the state’s position in the litigation.
Evidence and testimony highlighted at trial
New Mexico’s case relied in part on internal company materials and testimony obtained during the proceedings, which the state said showed repeated warnings from employees and outside child-safety specialists about risks on Meta’s platforms. The court also heard testimony from law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about alleged shortcomings in how Meta reported suspected crimes, including child sexual abuse material.
Prosecutors pointed to a 2024 sting operation by undercover agents that led to the arrest of three men charged with sexually targeting children through Meta’s services and attempting to meet them. The attorney general’s office referred to that effort as “Operation MetaPhile.”
Encryption, moderation, and the legal framing
The trial included arguments that Meta’s 2023 move to encrypt Facebook Messenger reduced access to evidence that investigators consider important in cases involving grooming and abuse imagery. Investigators also said the company’s heavy use of AI moderation produced large volumes of low-value reports that were difficult for law enforcement to use.
Meta has argued that US law often limits platform liability for user-generated content, citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. A judge denied Meta’s efforts to end the case on Section 230 and First Amendment grounds in June 2024, reasoning that the claims focused on product design and other non-speech issues such as internal decisions about content and curation.
What Meta and the state say comes next
Meta said it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal, and it criticized the attorney general’s approach as relying on selective documents and arguments it called irrelevant. The company also said it invests heavily in safety tools and pointed to measures such as Instagram Teen Accounts, introduced in 2024, which apply default protections for users aged 13 to 17.
The trial ran for nearly seven weeks, and jurors deliberated for about one day. A former New Mexico deputy district attorney, now a criminal defense lawyer, said the decision could encourage additional lawsuits and regulatory efforts; that view is an outside assessment, not a court finding.
