A New Mexico jury just handed Meta a $375 million verdict after finding the company misled users about the safety of its platforms and exposed children to harm. The case, brought by the state’s Department of Justice, is one of the first successful state trials against a major tech company over child safety.
Prosecutors targeted how Meta built its platforms and what it told the public about their safety, not just the content users posted.
The penalty stems from violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, with thousands of individual violations counted toward the total. The state had sought a higher number, but jurors still applied the maximum penalty per violation on the claims they accepted.
“Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said after the verdict.
Prosecutors argued Meta understood the risks tied to addiction, exposure to harmful content, and sexual exploitation, but continued to present its platforms as safe for younger users. Jurors agreed Meta made misleading statements, took advantage of minors, and failed to fully disclose what it knew about those risks.
The case relied on internal company documents, employee testimony, and a state investigation in which agents posed as minors and tracked what those accounts were shown, including how quickly they were exposed to sexual content and solicitations.
The state treated Meta’s design choices and safety claims as part of the product itself, not separate from it, allowing the case to bypass legal protections that typically shield platforms from liability for user-generated content.
More than 40 state attorneys general have filed similar lawsuits accusing Meta of contributing to a youth mental health crisis and failing to control harmful content on its platforms.
As noted, New Mexico’s case also relied on undercover accounts posing as children. Prosecutors said those accounts documented repeated sexual solicitations and showed Meta’s safeguards were not working as described.
Meta is already pushing back.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson said, adding that the company works to remove harmful content and protect users across its platforms
The company has said it discloses risks and invests in safety tools, while acknowledging that harmful content can still appear. The jury found Meta misled the public about risks to children, rejecting the company’s position that it had been clear about those risks and was addressing them.
The ruling stands while the appeal moves forward, with a judge set to decide in a later phase whether Meta must fund mitigation programs or change aspects of its platforms.
A jury has now found that Meta misled the public about risks to children on its platforms, and that finding is now part of the record every time the company is forced to defend itself again.
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