“Public nuisance” — Zuckerberg’s Meta ordered to pay almost $1bn over child safety

• Meta has been fined another $567m in New Mexico over alleged failures to protect children from harmful content and exploitation.

• The latest penalty brings the total fines in the case to $942m, following an earlier $375m ruling.

• Judge Bryan Biedscheid described Meta as a “public nuisance”, comparing the harm to pollution from a factory.

• Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, has been hit with another massive $567 million (£421 million) fine in the United States over how its platforms allegedly expose children to harmful content and exploitation.

A judge in New Mexico, Bryan Biedscheid, ordered the social media giant to pay the latest penalty after ruling that Meta failed to properly warn the public about the dangers its platforms posed to children.

And the judge did not mince words.

Biedscheid described Meta as a “public nuisance”, comparing the company’s impact on children to pollution from a factory.

According to the judge, Meta's advertising and content are its products, while “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children” amount to pollution that needs to be dealt with.

The latest $567 million ruling comes on top of an earlier $375 million penalty Meta was ordered to pay in the same case.

That brings the total amount Meta has been ordered to pay in the New Mexico case to $942 million.

For Meta, the matter is far from over.

A company spokesman said: “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal.”

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” the spokesman added.

“We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

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The case dates back to a 2023 lawsuit filed by attorneys for the state of New Mexico.

The state accused Meta of putting children at risk through its platforms, including allegedly exposing young users to sexually explicit material and allowing them to come into contact with sexual predators.

During the first phase of the trial, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act.

The court said the company's recommendation algorithms effectively “steered” young users towards harmful content and potentially dangerous contacts.

These algorithms are the systems Meta uses to automatically decide what content users see on its platforms.

In the latest phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid ruled that the harm caused by Meta's platforms was serious and widespread enough to qualify as a “public nuisance” — a term generally used for problems that threaten public health or safety.

The money from the latest penalty is expected to go into a fund designed to help reduce future harm.

The ruling is particularly significant because it appears to be the first time a social media company has been declared a public nuisance.

It is also the largest fine Meta has faced specifically over child safety issues.

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The New Mexico case is only one part of Meta's growing legal problems over the safety of children and teenagers online.

The company is currently facing thousands of lawsuits across the United States over similar allegations.

Earlier this year, Meta also lost a landmark case in Los Angeles, where a court found that the company could be held liable for building platforms designed to be addictive.

Meta has consistently denied wrongdoing and said it plans to appeal the New Mexico verdicts.

Despite the size of the latest penalty, Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter, now X, said the fine may not hurt Meta financially as much as the headline suggests.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Daisley described the $567 million penalty as “a drop in the ocean” for Meta.

That is because the company remains one of the world's biggest technology businesses.

In its most recent financial results, Meta reported $61 billion in revenue between April and June, representing a 28% increase compared with the same period the previous year.

But Daisley said the case could still have wider consequences.

“But it's an indication that we are moving to a stage where social media is going to be tackled around the world,” he said.

Former UK safeguarding minister Jess Phillips also told Today that legal action against major technology companies in the US could give the UK more confidence to take stronger action against Big Tech without worrying too much about damaging UK-US diplomatic relations.

For now, Meta says it will appeal the New Mexico ruling, meaning the legal battle over how social media companies protect children is far from finished.