A New Mexico jury ruled Tuesday that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.

The landmark decision comes after a nearly seven-week trial, and as jurors in a federal court in California have been sequestered in deliberations for more than a week about whether Meta and YouTube should be liable in a similar case.

Jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — prioritized profits over safety. The jury determined Meta violated parts of the state’s Unfair Practices Act on accusations the company hid what it knew about about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on its platforms and impacts on child mental health.

The jury agreed with allegations that Meta made false or misleading statements and also agreed that Meta engaged in “unconscionable” trade practices that unfairly took advantage of the vulnerabilities of and inexperience of children.

Jurors found there were thousands of violations, each counting separately toward a penalty of $375 million.

  • lumpenproletariat@quokk.au
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    8 hours ago

    $375m?

    $375 fucking million?

    For how many hundreds of millions of children did Meta harm, and to pay a fucking pittance. Fucking CSAM is a slap on the wrist for the rich.

    • P1nkman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Which is why I’m all for killing anyone who enables this shit. I’m so fucking tired of being manipulated by the rich, who’s causing harm to millions of people, but as long as they get more money, the don’t care.

      Well guess what: I don’t care about you, and I would happily become a martyr if I’d have the chance of taking you down with me!

      I know this comment will be deleted due to “community guidelines”, but here it is: kill 👏 the 👏 rich👏!

      • lumpenproletariat@quokk.au
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        6 hours ago

        We need to enact age verification laws to protect the kids tho!

        Who’re we protecting them from? Apparently not the people doing it.