Meta ordered to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health as judge brands social media giants a 'public nuisance'
The New Mexico ruling came after state attorneys argued Meta should be held accountable for "endangering children" and exposing them to sexually explicit content
A US court has ordered Meta to pay over £421million for failing to warn the public about the dangers its platforms posed to children.
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The parent company of Instagram and Facebook must pay $567 million (£421 million) towards a fund aimed at reducing future harm.
The New Mexico court ruling is in addition to the $375 million (£278.9 million) in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid described Meta as a "public nuisance" and compared it 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".
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The case stemmed from a lawsuit brought by attorneys for the State of New Mexico, which argued Meta should be held liable for the way in which its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material online.
The trial found that Meta had repeatedly violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act because its recommendation algorithms essentially "steered" young users toward harmful content.
The judge found that Meta's harms reached the level of "public nuisance", or an issue of health and safety that has become so widespread it is negatively impacting the general public.
He added in his conclusions: "Just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta's platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement."
A spokesperson for Meta said in response to the ruling: "We disagree with the ruling and will 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.
"We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."
The court ordered Meta to attempt to develop a dedicated "under-13-years-of-age prediction model" within the next two years, and it should request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13.
New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said afterwards: "This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence.
"The decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online."