Meta Must Pay in US 567 Million for Endangering Children

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta on Thursday to pay another $567m into a child-safety harm-reduction fund, BBC News reported, bringing ordered payments in the case to $942m.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said Meta failed to warn the public about dangers its platforms posed to children and called the company a "public nuisance" akin to air pollution. The BBC said the ruling was the largest child-safety ruling against Meta.

Biedscheid compared Meta to a factory, with advertising and content as its product and "the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated". The $567m order follows an earlier $375m verdict in the same New Mexico case.

Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, said it disagreed with the ruling and would 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," a spokesman said.

The case stems from a 2023 lawsuit by attorneys for the State of New Mexico, who argued Meta endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators. In the first phase, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, with recommendation algorithms that the article said "steered" young users toward harmful content and contacts.