Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was “inevitable” on its apps - Ars Technica

Overview

Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was “inevitable” on its apps

Meta plans to appeal as it faces down two other child safety trials.

Details

Meta has lost the first of three child safety trials it’s facing this year after a jury in a New Mexico state court found that the social media giant’s platforms do not effectively protect kids from child exploitation.

On Tuesday, the jury deliberated for only one day before agreeing that Meta should pay $375 million in civil damages for violating state consumer protections and misleading parents about the safety of its apps.

The trial followed a 2023 lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez after The Guardian published a two-year investigation exposing child sex trafficking markets on Facebook and Instagram. Torrez’s office then conducted an undercover investigation codenamed “Operation Meta Phile,” in which officers posed as children on Facebook, Instagram, and Whats App. The jury heard that these fake profiles were “simply inundated with images and targeted solicitations” from child abusers, Torrez told CNBC in 2024. Ultimately, three men were arrested amid the sting for attempting to use Meta’s social networks to prey on children.

At trial, Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified that “harms to children, such as sexual exploitation and detriments to mental health, were inevitable on the company’s platforms due to their vast user bases,” The Guardian reported. Internal messages and documents, as well as testimony from child safety experts within and outside the company, showed that Meta repeatedly ignored warnings and failed to fix platforms to protect kids, New Mexico’s AG successfully argued.

Perhaps most troubling to the jury, law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also testified that Meta’s reporting of crimes to children on its apps—including child sexual abuse materials (CSAM)—was “deficient,” The Guardian reported. Rather than make it easy to trace harms on its platforms, the jury learned from frustrated cops that Meta “generated high volumes of ‘junk’ reports by overly relying on AI to moderate its platforms.” This made its reporting “useless” and “meant crimes could not be investigated,” The Guardian reported.

Celebrating the win as a “historic victory,” Torrez told CNBC that families had previously paid the price for “Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety.”

“Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew,” Torrez said. “Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”

On Tuesday, Meta was quick to note that the jury declined to order the highest fine that New Mexico sought, which could have cost the company $2.2 billion. However, as the trial moves into the second phase, which starts on May 4, Meta could face additional financial penalties and be forced to make changes to its apps. And the Guardian noted that the jury did order Meta to pay the maximum penalty under state consumer protection laws.

If Torrez gets his way, Facebook, Instagram, and Whats App will be effectively age-gated, and child predators will be detected and removed more often in the future. To accomplish that, he thinks kids should also be cut off from sending encrypted messages, which he argued bad actors rely on to evade arrest. The court may agree, as it was revealed during the trial that Meta chose to set chats as encrypted by default despite warnings that the setting would make it harder to investigate child predators on its platforms.

For Meta, the loss may signal even more damages to come, as the company is awaiting the verdict in another child safety social media trial in Los Angeles, alongside You Tube-owner Google.

A jury has been deliberating for more than a week in that case, and though they’ve reached a decision on liability, they’re currently deadlocked on the amount of financial damages to award. On Monday, they confirmed to a judge that they can’t reach consensus for one of the defendants, a Los Angeles NBC affiliate reported, but it’s unclear which.

In a separate federal trial in California, parents and multiple school districts are targeting Meta and other apps for allegedly causing mental health harms to kids.

While some social media companies have chosen to settle rather than endure costly legal battles over child safety, Meta has stuck these fights out. Unsurprisingly, Meta’s spokesperson confirmed to Ars on Tuesday that the company plans to appeal the New Mexico verdict.

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” Meta’s spokesperson said. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Torrez remains intent on proving that Meta can and should do more to protect kids, he told CNBC Tuesday. He’s hoping that any changes required in New Mexico will alter how Meta’s apps are used around the world.

“One of the things that I am really focused on is how we can change the design features of these products, at least within New Mexico, and that would create a standard that could then be modeled elsewhere in the country, and, frankly, around the world,” Torrez said.

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Key Takeaways

• Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was “inevitable” on its apps

• Meta plans to appeal as it faces down two other child safety trials

• Meta has lost the first of three child safety trials it’s facing this year after a jury in a New Mexico state court found that the social media giant’s platforms do not effectively protect kids from child exploitation

• On Tuesday, the jury deliberated for only one day before agreeing that Meta should pay $375 million in civil damages for violating state consumer protections and misleading parents about the safety of its apps

• The trial followed a 2023 lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez after The Guardian published a two-year investigation exposing child sex trafficking markets on Facebook and Instagram