A New Mexico judge ordered Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to pay $567 million, as well as make changes to the way young users use its platforms, in a ruling tied to a child safety case.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled against the tech giant late on Thursday, marking the largest financial penalty Zuckerberg’s company has received while battling legal suits regarding social media addiction and its harm to minors.
Biedscheid’s ruling of $567 million was in addition to the $375 million Meta had been ordered to pay back in March for the same case. At the time, a jury had found that Meta did mislead its users about the safety of its social media platforms, which in turn enabled the sexual exploitation of its young users.
The Thursday judgement is set to go into a fund that is designated to remedy damages caused by Meta. Specifically, the money can be used for treatment for young users who have been impacted by social media.
Additionally, Meta is now barred from sending push notifications in New Mexico to accounts belonging to underage users on Instagram and Facebook between 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The company must also enforce the amount of time underage users spend on their social media platforms – prohibiting them from spending no more than 90 hours a month on the social sites.
“Although Meta is not alone in this regard, its social media platforms are a significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth established by the substantial evidence in this case,” Biedscheid wrote in his ruling, per the New York Times.
In response to the ruling, a Meta spokesperson told the outlet that they planned to appeal the judge’s decision.
“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,” the spokesperson said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
Raúl Torrez, New Mexico’s state attorney general, celebrated the ruling Thursday, noting in a statement, “For years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico’s kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety. Today, Meta is paying for that choice.”
New Mexico notably led the charge against Meta, with the tech company facing thousands of similar lawsuits across the U.S. The company is set to go to trial in Oakland, Calif. later this month, facing off against the four states (California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey) that have accused it of making their social platforms addictive for young people.
