{"id":173925,"date":"2026-03-24T23:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/173925\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:14:13","slug":"jury-finds-meta-failed-to-protect-kids-from-sexual-predators-misled-users-ordered-to-pay-375m-in-landmark-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/173925\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury finds Meta failed to protect kids from sexual predators, misled users — ordered to pay $375M in landmark case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta failed to protect kids from sexual predators and misled users about its platforms\u2019 safety, violating New Mexico law, a jury found Tuesday in a landmark case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tech giant was ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties.<\/p>\n

The verdict came after six weeks of testimony from witnesses that included ex-Meta executives, teachers and online safety experts.<\/p>\n

New Mexico prosecutors argued that Meta hid the extent of safety issues that kids faced on Facebook and Instagram and failed to enforce its claimed minimum age limit of 13 \u2013 even as its algorithms allegedly made it easier for creeps to target kids for online harassment and even sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety issues that you\u2019ve heard about in this case, weren\u2019t mistakes,\u201d state attorney Linda Singer told the jury on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were a product of a corporate philosophy that chose growth and engagement over children\u2019s safety. And young people in this state and around the country have borne the cost,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

New Mexico state attorney Linda Singer delivered her closing statement on Monday. AP<\/p>\n

Meta said Tuesday it respectfully disagreed with the verdict and will appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content,\u201d a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

New Mexico attorneys had been seeking a whopping $2 billion in penalties against Meta for alleged violations of state law barring unfair trade practices. The case, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez, was one of numerous trials across the country that could ultimately determine whether Big Tech companies are held responsible for harmful content on their platforms.<\/p>\n

Meta strenuously pushed back on the allegations in New Mexico, arguing that it has taken many steps to improve safety and dedicated vast resources toward combating harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeta has built innovative, automated tools to protect people,\u201d Meta attorney Kevin Huff said during his closing argument. \u201cMeta has 40,000 people working to make its apps as safe as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huff described New Mexico\u2019s request for $2 billion in penalties as \u201ca shocking number.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta attorney Kevin Huff argued the company has dedicated a ton of resources to protect kids online. AP<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Singer told jurors that Meta \u201chas failed over and over again to act honestly and transparently, failed to act to protect young people in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is up to you to finish this job,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s investigation into Meta\u2019s alleged misdeeds included a sting operation in which officials set up test accounts to probe the company\u2019s safety standards.<\/p>\n

Test accounts were allegedly bombarded with adult sex content and outreach from alleged child predators, including \u201cpictures and videos of genitalia\u201d and an offer of a six-figure payment to star in a porn video, the lawsuit claims. Local police made at least three arrests.<\/p>\n

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has been under microscope in multiple social media-related lawsuits this year. AP<\/p>\n

Jurors heard testimony from former Meta safety researcher-turned-whistleblower Arturo B\u00e9jar,<\/a> who emotionally recounted how his then-14-year-old daughter received sick messages including \u201cunsolicited penis pictures\u201d shortly after creating her first Instagram account. He also alleged that Meta\u2019s algorithm helped creeps find potential victims more easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d B\u00e9jar testified.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, court documents unsealed as part of the case included an internal email in which a researcher warned the company\u2019s executives that there could be as many as 500,000 cases of online sexual exploitation<\/a> per day on Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n

Meta is awaiting a jury\u2019s decision in a separate case in California state court, where the company and Google-owned YouTube face claims that they fueled social media addiction despite knowing it was causing a public health crisis. The companies deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta failed to protect kids from sexual predators and misled users about its platforms\u2019 safety, violating New Mexico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,5998,3956,48513,32912,21996,9,11,10,4015,1601],"class_list":["post-173925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-social-media","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}