Meta Found Liable in Child Exploitation Trial; Penalized $375M
Internal documents show that employees and child safety experts have warned about risks and harms on the company's platforms.
Topics
News
- Enterprises Are Scaling AI Faster Than They Can Govern It: Study
- As AI Agents Proliferate, Identity Security Gaps Persist, Report Finds
- Meta Found Liable in Child Exploitation Trial; Penalized $375M
- OpenAI Flags Microsoft as a ‘Risk Factor’ Ahead of Potential IPO, Report Says
- Neuralink’s 1st Human Trial Hits 100 Days, Raises Long-term Questions
- Jensen Huang Says AGI is Here, and It Can Run Companies Too!
Image Credit- Diksha Mishra/ MIT Sloan Management Review Middle East
Over two years after New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Meta on its platforms becoming a marketplace for child sex trafficking, a jury has ordered the social media giant to pay $375 million in civil penalties.
Notably, this is the first bench trial to find Meta liable for acts committed on their platform. The jury has penalized Meta $5,000 per violation.
“The jury’s verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety,” said New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez.
“Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew. Today, the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”
Torrez’s lawsuit followed a two-year investigation conducted by the Guardian, published in April 2023.
Responding to the order, Meta said it will appeal the ruling, accusing Torrez of making “sensationalist, irrelevant arguments by cherry-picking select documents”.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. 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,” said a Meta spokesperson. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
Internal documents of Meta revealed that both company employees and external child safety experts have repeatedly warned of the risks and harmful conditions on Meta’s platforms.
In February, a Meta researcher warned executives of an upward of 500,000 cases of sexual exploitation of minors occurring per day on its social media platforms.
Malia Andrus, who worked with Meta in a child safety role between 2017 and 2024 and now works with OpenAI, said in a June 2020 email, “We expect the true situation is worse.”
Andrus noted that social media gave way for predators to target children to an extent that wasn’t possible before.
Meta’s spokesperson addressing the issue said, “Since 2020, we’ve introduced a range of new measures to help reduce potential grooming and inappropriate interactions with children – including preventing adults from starting private chats with teens they’re not connected to, and using improved behavioural signals to identify potentially suspicious actors and preventing them from finding and following teens.”
Furthermore, its decision of 2023 to encrypt Facebook Messenger, used by predators as a tool to groom minors and exchange child abuse imagery, has blocked access to crucial evidence of the crimes committed.
In the next phase of the proceedings, due for May 4, Torrez’s office will seek additional financial penalties and court-mandated changes to Meta’s platforms that “offer stronger protections for children.”
