A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and make changes to the way young people can use its platforms, the largest financial penalty yet against the tech giant in its ongoing legal battles over social media harm and addiction.
The ruling, issued late Thursday, was in addition to $375 million that Meta was ordered to pay in the same case in March, when a jury found that the company misled users about the safety of its platforms and enabled the sexual exploitation of young people.
The $567 million will go toward a fund to remedy damages caused by the company, including money for treatment of young people who have been harmed by social media.
“Although Meta is not alone in this regard, its social media platforms are a significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth established by the substantial evidence in this case,” Judge Bryan Biedscheid, of State District Court in Santa Fe, wrote in the ruling.
Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said in statement that the company disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal.
“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,” he said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
As part of the changes ordered in the judge’s ruling, Meta is prohibited in New Mexico from sending push notifications to the accounts of underage users on Instagram and Facebook between the hours of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It also must limit the amount of time those users spend on its platforms to no more than 90 hours a month.
Meta is facing thousands of lawsuits across the country filed by teenagers, school districts and attorneys general claiming that its platforms, and features like infinite scroll, caused widespread harm. New Mexico was the first of dozens of states to take on the tech giant in court, and the company heads to a trial later this month in Oakland, Calif., to take on a case filed by attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.
“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 the state attorney general, Raúl Torrez. “Today, Meta is paying for that choice.”
Cecilia Kang contributed reporting from Washington.
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