Meta ordered to pay $567 million to New Mexico youth relief fund
Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million in a public-nuisance lawsuit in New Mexico to a relief fund for young people. The case is one of many lawsuits the company faces over alleged harm caused by its social-media applications. The payment comes on top of the $375 million civil penalty Meta paid earlier this year. Meta was previously found to have violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The second phase of the trial began in May and will determine whether Meta’s conduct constituted a public nuisance and whether the company must make changes to its products. “Although Meta is not the only company with these problems, the extensive evidence in this case established that the company’s social-media platforms were a significant contributor to the current mental-health crisis among young people in New Mexico,” the judge wrote in a ruling issued Thursday. Most of the fund—$420 million—will be dedicated to treatment for people harmed by the platform. The remaining money will support public education and prevention initiatives, screening and assessment, referrals and coordination among different parties, as well as program implementation, quality improvement and effectiveness evaluations. For Meta and its peers, the case is one of several lawsuits this year that experts have described as social media’s “Big Tobacco moment.” In the 1990s, tobacco companies were ordered to pay billions of dollars after misleading the public about the safety of their products and their potential harms. Their influence and reach subsequently declined substantially. Meta said in its second-quarter financial filing: “The New Mexico attorney general has indicated that he plans to seek a penalty of up to $62.85 billion in this case.” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres sued Meta in 2023. The lawsuit stemmed from an undercover investigation in which investigators created a fake social-media account for a 13-year-old girl. The account “received a steady stream of images from abusers and targeted grooming messages.” At a news conference before the second phase of the trial began, the New Mexico attorney general said Torres had originally sought, as part of the case, to force Meta to overhaul its applications. The requested changes included deploying effective age-verification technology, adjusting recommendation algorithms so they could not harm children’s physical and mental health, and taking other steps to “fundamentally reshape how Meta operates in the state.” In addition to establishing the relief fund, the order issued Thursday requires Meta to use artificial intelligence to continually improve “New Mexico’s age-verification models and tools” and to seek “within two years to develop a predictive model specifically designed to identify users under 13.”
The payment comes on top of the $375 million civil penalty Meta paid earlier this year. Meta was previously found to have violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The second phase of the trial began in May and will determine whether Meta’s conduct constituted a public nuisance and whether the company must make changes to its products.
“Although Meta is not the only company with these problems, the extensive evidence in this case established that the company’s social-media platforms were a significant contributor to the current mental-health crisis among young people in New Mexico,” the judge wrote in a ruling issued Thursday.
Most of the fund—$420 million—will be dedicated to treatment for people harmed by the platform. The remaining money will support public education and prevention initiatives, screening and assessment, referrals and coordination among different parties, as well as program implementation, quality improvement and effectiveness evaluations.
For Meta and its peers, the case is one of several lawsuits this year that experts have described as social media’s “Big Tobacco moment.” In the 1990s, tobacco companies were ordered to pay billions of dollars after misleading the public about the safety of their products and their potential harms. Their influence and reach subsequently declined substantially.
Meta said in its second-quarter financial filing: “The New Mexico attorney general has indicated that he plans to seek a penalty of up to $62.85 billion in this case.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres sued Meta in 2023. The lawsuit stemmed from an undercover investigation in which investigators created a fake social-media account for a 13-year-old girl. The account “received a steady stream of images from abusers and targeted grooming messages.”
At a news conference before the second phase of the trial began, the New Mexico attorney general said Torres had originally sought, as part of the case, to force Meta to overhaul its applications. The requested changes included deploying effective age-verification technology, adjusting recommendation algorithms so they could not harm children’s physical and mental health, and taking other steps to “fundamentally reshape how Meta operates in the state.”
In addition to establishing the relief fund, the order issued Thursday requires Meta to use artificial intelligence to continually improve “New Mexico’s age-verification models and tools” and to seek “within two years to develop a predictive model specifically designed to identify users under 13.”