New Mexico Wins $567 Million Meta Payout and 5-Year Child Safety Reforms
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 17
New Mexico Wins $567 Million Meta Payout and 5-Year Child Safety Reforms
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 17
Summary
$567 million in court-ordered payments will flow from Meta to New Mexico, mostly for youth mental health treatment, after a judge imposed five years of child-safety changes on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The ruling followed a seven-week trial in which a jury found Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation, adding a $375 million maximum statutory penalty.
Meta’s total liability in the two phases now stands at $942 million, though the judge rejected some state requests including de-encrypting children’s messages and appointing an external child-safety monitor.
Raúl Torrez is using that win to draft two broader state bills on online child safety and consumer protection, while also preparing another Meta trial in September and a separate lawsuit against an AI chatbot company.
The case is emerging as a model for other plaintiffs as Meta faces parallel litigation from 29 states, with the company saying it will appeal and warning broader claims could carry more than $1.4 trillion in damages.