Meta faces New Mexico trial over child-exploitation claims

Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference 2023 in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Meta Platforms is set to face trial next week in a lawsuit brought by the state of New Mexico accusing it of exposing children and teens to sexual exploitation on its platforms and profiting from it, the first case of its kind against the social media giant to reach a jury.

The lawsuit, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, alleges the company promoted illegal content and enabled the sexual exploitation of children on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. The lawsuit claims Meta allowed predators unfettered access to underage users and connected them with victims, often leading to real-world abuse and human trafficking.

The trial, which is set to begin with jury selection on Monday in Santa Fe District Court, is expected to last seven or eight weeks.

Meta denies the allegations and says it has extensive safeguards in place to protect younger users.

Undercover operation

The case grew out of an undercover operation called “Operation MetaPhile,” which Torrez, a former prosecutor, and his office ran in 2023. As part of that effort, investigators created accounts on Facebook and Instagram posing as users younger than 14. The accounts received sexually explicit material and were contacted by adults seeking similar content, leading to criminal charges against three individuals, according to Torrez’s office.

The state also accuses Meta of designing its platforms to maximize engagement despite evidence they were harming children’s mental health. Features like infinite scroll and auto-play videos keep kids on the site, fostering addictive behavior that can lead to depression, anxiety and self-harm, the lawsuit claims.

According to the complaint, internal company documents acknowledged the problems with sexual exploitation and mental health harms. Yet the company, the state says, did not institute basic safety tools like age verification and misrepresented the safety of using its platforms, according to the complaint.

The state is seeking monetary damages, as well as an order directing Meta to make changes to improve children’s safety while using the platforms.

In a statement ahead of the trial, a Meta spokesperson called New Mexico’s arguments “sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting” and said they were based on cherry-picked documents.

“For over a decade, we’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the spokesperson said. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

Meta has argued that the company is shielded from liability in the case by the free-speech protections of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally bars lawsuits against websites over user-generated content. The state’s allegations of harms cannot be separated from the content on the platforms, because its algorithms and design features serve to publish content, the company has said.

A spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Justice said ahead of the trial that the agency looked forward to presenting the case in court, as it would allow it “to present the jury with documents and testimony gathered over more than two years of litigation.”

Safety record under fire

Meta has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years over the safety of child and teen users, spurred in part by whistleblower testimony before Congress in 2021 that alleged the company knew its products could be harmful but refused to act.

Last year, Reuters reported that an internal policy document allowed the company’s chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity, but said it removed language permitting flirtation and romantic role-play with minors after Reuters asked questions about it. The report prompted lawmakers to seek data on the platforms’ impact on children and the effectiveness of its parental controls. Evidence about the company’s AI chatbots is expected to be presented at the trial.

Meta is also facing thousands of lawsuits accusing it and other social media companies of intentionally designing their products to be addictive to young people, leading to a nationwide mental health crisis. Some of the lawsuits, which have been filed in both state and federal courts, seek damages in the tens of billions of dollars, according to Meta’s filings with financial regulators.

Meta has denied those claims and also argued that Section 230 shields it from liability in those cases. The company says it has taken many steps that have reduced youth engagement and growth in order to promote safety.

The first trial in those cases kicked off in Los Angeles earlier this week. Alphabet’s Google and Meta are the only remaining defendants in that case after TikTok and Snap reached settlements with the plaintiff.

Reporting by Diana Novak Jones in Chicago, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis, Reuters