On Tuesday, a jury determined that Meta violated New Mexico law in a case accusing the company of failing both to warn users about the perils of its platforms and to safeguard children from sexual predators.
The jury held Meta accountable on every count, including intentional engagement in “unfair and deceptive” and “unconscionable” trade practices, ordering the corporation to remit $\$375$ million in damages.
For years, Meta has faced scrutiny regarding the risks posed to youngsters and teens on its platforms from parents, whistleblowers, advocates, and legislators. Tuesday’s verdict marked the first time the company was held liable by a jury on these matters.
A Meta spokesperson indicated the company “respectfully” disagrees with the finding and intends to appeal the decision.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023 over its alleged role in creating “breeding grounds” for child predators on Facebook and Instagram, asserting the company has been in denial. While the jury’s award was less than the billions in damages sought by New Mexico, a subsequent segment of the case presented directly to the judge could force Meta to alter its platforms and pay supplementary penalties.
This lawsuit joins a wave of legal challenges confronting Meta and other social networks concerning the safety of their younger users. As the jury in the New Mexico state court delivered its verdict, a separate jury in Los Angeles was hearing a case against Meta and YouTube, alleging the intentional creation of addictive features detrimental to a young woman’s mental health. Social media giants are also facing hundreds of other lawsuits from private individuals, school districts, and state attorneys general—some of which are scheduled for trial later this year.
Monday’s closing arguments followed a six-week trial that included testimony from Meta executives alongside former employees who had become whistleblowers. Details of the Attorney General’s covert investigation into child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms, which led to three arrests, were also discussed in the courtroom.
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The New Mexico jury was tasked with deciding whether Meta knowingly made false and misleading statements about its platform safety or engaged in “unconscionable” practices by deliberately designing its platforms to harm young people.
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms, and we understand clearly the complexities of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content,” a Meta representative stated on Tuesday. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously and remain confident in our reputation for protecting teens online.”
Torrez labeled the verdict a “historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s decision to prioritize profit over child safety.”
“Meta executives knew their products were harming children, ignored warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew. Today, the jury has joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying: ‘Enough is enough,'” Torrez declared in a statement on Tuesday.
Prior to the verdict, a Meta representative on Monday pointed to an earlier statement suggesting the New Mexico lawsuit “creates sensational, irrelevant, and distracting arguments by cherry-picking isolated documents” while ignoring the “company’s long-standing commitment to supporting young people.”
Meta attorney Kevin Huff argued in court that the company operates transparently with users, accepting that some abusers and inappropriate content might slip past its safety filters. However, he emphasized that 40,000 people at Meta are dedicated to the safety of Facebook and Instagram, and that the company is heavily funding protective measures for its youngest users.
The jury deliberated on whether Meta misled and harmed children
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office created several fake profiles on Facebook and Instagram, posing as children, as part of the investigation into Meta. The lawsuit claims these test accounts were exposed to sexually suggestive content and requests for pornographic material.
The fake child accounts were reportedly connected with and invited to sexual meetings by three men from New Mexico who were arrested in May 2024. Two of the three men were apprehended at a motel where, based on their conversations with the decoy accounts, they allegedly believed they were meeting a 12-year-old girl.
During the trial, the state maintained that Meta had not done enough to prevent predators on its platforms from connecting with children.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez speaks at a rally calling for social media accountability in protecting teens on January 31, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Torrez accuses Meta of failing to keep New Mexico teens safe.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech
Former Meta Director of Engineering turned whistleblower, Arturo Behar, testified about his attempts to warn Meta executives after he claimed his own 14-year-old daughter was sexually harassed on Instagram. He also contended that the highly personalized algorithms that make Meta’s platforms successful at serving ads can also benefit predators.
“The product is excellent at connecting people with interests, and if you are interested in little girls, it’s excellent at connecting you with little girls,” Behar testified.
Former Meta VP of Partnerships, Brian Boland, stated he “absolutely did not believe safety was a priority” under CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg when he departed the company in 2020. Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, conversely, testified that Meta implemented safety features like teen accounts despite their negative impact on growth and engagement.
The New Mexico case also brought to light concerns that enabling end-to-end encryption in Instagram chats—a privacy measure that blocks the conversation from being viewed by anyone other than the sender and receiver—could hinder law enforcement’s ability to catch predators. Midway through the trial, Meta announced it would cease supporting end-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram later this year.
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Regarding the encryption decision, a Meta representative informed CNN that “very few people choose end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we are removing that option from Instagram in the coming months. Anyone who wants to continue communicating with end-to-end encryption can easily do so in WhatsApp.”
Previously, a Meta spokesperson told CNN that “child exploitation is a heinous crime, and we have been building technology for years to combat it.” Meta’s Head of Child Safety Policy, Ravi Sinha, testified about the company’s collaboration with law enforcement to prevent and report child exploitation cases.
Company lawyers challenged the legitimacy of the New Mexico investigation, accusing the Attorney General’s office of utilizing hacked or stolen accounts and photos of real, non-consenting children to lure predators. Meta representative Andy Stone called the setup “ethically compromised” in a series of posts on X last month.
Torrez had previously dismissed these remarks as a “distraction.”
“One of the most common things is trying to attack the investigation instead of truly focusing on your own accountability,” he told CNN on Monday. “I don’t think the jury is really going to buy into that.”
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