A New Mexico jury has delivered a major blow to Meta, finding the social media giant failed to protect children and misled users about the safety of its platforms.
According to the New York Post, the decision, handed down Tuesday after weeks of testimony, orders the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating state law.
Jurors heard six weeks of evidence, including testimony from former Meta executives, educators, and online safety experts.
Prosecutors argued the company concealed serious risks facing minors on Facebook and Instagram, while failing to enforce its stated minimum user age of 13.
They also alleged that Meta’s algorithms made it easier for predators to find and target children, exposing them to harassment and exploitation.
“The safety issues that you’ve heard about in this case, weren’t mistakes,” state attorney Linda Singer told the jury on Monday.
“They were a product of a corporate philosophy that chose growth and engagement over children’s safety. And young people in this state and around the country have borne the cost,” she added.
Meta pushed back strongly following the verdict and said it plans to appeal.
“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,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The case was brought by Raúl Torrez, whose office had initially sought as much as $2 billion in penalties under state laws governing unfair trade practices.
During closing arguments, Meta attorney Kevin Huff defended the company’s safety efforts.
“Meta has built innovative, automated tools to protect people,” he said. “Meta has 40,000 people working to make its apps as safe as possible.”
Huff also criticized the $2 billion penalty request as “a shocking number.”
Singer, however, argued the company repeatedly failed to act responsibly.
“Meta has failed over and over again to act honestly and transparently, failed to act to protect young people in this state,” she said. “It is up to you to finish this job.”
The state’s investigation included a sting operation in which officials created test accounts to evaluate platform safety.
According to the lawsuit, those accounts were quickly flooded with explicit material and messages from suspected predators, including “pictures and videos of genitalia” and even offers of large payments for pornographic content.
Authorities said the operation led to at least three arrests.
Jurors also heard emotional testimony from former Meta safety researcher Arturo Béjar, who described his teenage daughter receiving “unsolicited penis pictures” shortly after joining Instagram.
“The product is very good at connecting people with interests, and if your interest is little girls, it will be really good at connecting you with little girls,” Béjar testified.
Internal company documents presented in court included warnings from a researcher that Facebook and Instagram could see as many as 500,000 instances of online sexual exploitation per day.
Meta is also awaiting a verdict in a separate California case involving similar allegations, which the company denies.
