Instagram owner Meta ordered to pay nearly $1B in fines for risking child safety, court says

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others, must pay nearly $1 billion after a court found the social media giant to have put children and teen users at risk. A New Mexico judge ruled that Meta must pay $567 million into a fund to pay for harm prevention and awareness, in addition to $375 million in civil penalties previously decided by a jury.

cbsnews.com ·4d ago

A US court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to pay nearly $1 billion in fines for risking child safety. The company must pay $567 million into a fund for harm prevention and awareness, in addition to $375 million in civil penalties previously decided by a jury.

The ruling, made by a New Mexico judge, found that Meta had created a "public nuisance" that endangered young users. According to The Island Sri Lanka, Judge Bryan Biedscheid compared Meta to a factory, with advertising and content as its product and "the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated".

Meta plans to appeal the ruling, stating that they "disagree with the ruling" and "work hard to keep people safe on our platforms". The company also claims to have been "transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content". This is the largest child-safety ruling against Meta, and it comes as dozens of other US states pursue lawsuits accusing the company of harming children.

Brief written by urgent.news from CBS News, France 24, The Hill, Punch Nigeria, The Island Sri Lanka — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.