Meta ordered to pay enormous penalty after losing New Mexico case
Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million to fund youth mental health services in New Mexico in the final phase of a child safety trial.
Meta lost the lawsuit in March when a New Mexico jury found the social media company liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children.
At the time, Meta was ordered to pay the maximum penalties for each violation of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws, amounting to $375 million.
On Thursday, a New Mexico judge assessed the new financial penalty after deciding Meta was liable for causing a teen mental health epidemic in the state. The penalty will fund treatment for young people harmed by Meta’s platforms, as well as pay for mental health prevention and awareness services.
“For years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico’s kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “Today, Meta is paying for that choice.”
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In total, Meta is required to pay nearly $942 million.
Andy Stone, vice president of communications for Meta, shared in a statement on X that the company disagrees with the ruling and will appeal it.
“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,” the statement said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
In addition to creating an abatement fund to address harms, Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid also required the company to implement certain safety features, such as ensuring that no account for a user under 18 is recommended to an adult and preventing minors from engaging in romantic or sexual interactions with Meta’s AI chatbots.
Last year, Reuters found that Meta’s policies had allowed chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” Such guidelines were removed from the company’s policies. In January, Meta made its AI characters temporarily inaccessible to teens pending an “updated” experience for them.
