New Mexico’s lawsuit accuses Meta of enabling child exploitation and harming youth mental health, with a trial set to begin next week.
SANTA FE: Meta Platforms will face a jury trial next week in a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico.
The state’s Attorney General, Raúl Torrez, alleges the company exposed children and teens to sexual exploitation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The lawsuit claims Meta allowed predators unfettered access to underage users, connecting them with victims and leading to real-world abuse.
It further accuses Meta of designing its platforms to maximise engagement despite evidence of harm to children’s mental health.
The trial is set to begin with jury selection on Monday in Santa Fe District Court and is expected to last seven or eight weeks.
The case grew from a 2023 undercover operation where investigators created accounts posing as users under 14.
Those accounts received sexually explicit material and were contacted by adults seeking similar content, leading to criminal charges against three individuals.
The state alleges internal company documents acknowledged problems with sexual exploitation and mental health harms.
It claims Meta failed to institute basic safety tools like age verification and misrepresented platform safety.
New Mexico is seeking monetary damages and an order directing Meta to make changes to improve children’s safety.
A Meta spokesperson called New Mexico’s arguments “sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting” ahead of the trial.
The spokesperson said the company has worked with experts and law enforcement for over a decade to improve safety.
Meta argues it is shielded from liability by the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The company contends the state’s allegations cannot be separated from the user-generated content on its platforms.
Meta has faced increasing scrutiny over child safety, spurred by 2021 whistleblower testimony before Congress.
Last year, Reuters reported on an internal policy document that allowed company chatbots to engage minors in romantic conversations.
Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity but said it removed the problematic language after Reuters inquired.
Evidence about the company’s AI chatbots is expected to be presented at the upcoming trial.
Meta is also facing thousands of other lawsuits accusing it of designing addictive products that harm young people’s mental health.
Some of those lawsuits seek damages in the tens of billions of dollars, according to Meta’s regulatory filings.
The company denies those claims and also argues Section 230 provides a shield from liability.
The first trial in those separate cases began earlier this week in Los Angeles.
Alphabet’s Google and Meta are the only remaining defendants in that case after TikTok and Snap reached settlements. – Reuters
