Meta’s New Mexico $567 million ruling requires the company to finance a five-year fund for youth-related harms after a Santa Fe judge found Facebook and Instagram’s owner had created a public nuisance in the state. The order adds a remedy fund to the $375 million in civil penalties a jury awarded earlier this year, bringing the reported total to $942 million.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid found that Meta’s platforms were a significant contributing factor in New Mexico’s youth mental-health crisis, according to reports of his ruling by CNBC, The Washington Post and The Verge. That is a court finding in this case, not a general scientific verdict on every social-media service.
The $567 million is an abatement fund, rather than another conventional civil penalty. France 24 and CNBC report that Meta is to pay it over five years to support remediation for people harmed by its platforms.
What will Meta’s $567 million New Mexico fund pay for?
CNBC reports that $420 million is earmarked for treatment. The balance is allocated for awareness and prevention, screening and assessment, referral and coordination services, plus implementation, quality improvement and evaluation.
The fund stems from the second, nonjury phase of New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s 2023 case against Meta. The question in that phase was whether the company’s platforms constituted a public nuisance under state law, RTÉ reported.
In March, a jury found that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading consumers about the safety of Facebook and Instagram for children, according to France 24 and CNBC. That verdict produced the separate $375 million civil-penalty award.
What changes must Meta make in New Mexico?
The ruling also imposes operational requirements. CNBC reports that Meta must continue improving its age-assurance tools in New Mexico and try to develop a model within two years to identify users under 13. The company must also make suspected underage accounts easier to report and work with schools or a child-safety organization on a reporting portal for suspected under-13 accounts.
France 24 reported that the company must give the court updates twice a year and continue efforts to prevent children under 13 from using Facebook and Instagram. RTÉ reported that the five-year decree includes youth-safety measures concerning teen use, notifications, adult contact with minors, AI chatbots and reviews of child-sexual-abuse reports.
There is a conspicuous boundary on the order. Biedscheid did not require Meta to alter its algorithms, CNBC reported, citing potential conflicts with Section 230 and First Amendment protections. So the court ordered money and specific safety processes, while leaving the recommendation systems themselves outside this remedy.
Meta said it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal. In a statement reported by CNBC and France 24, the company said it works to protect people on its services, including by identifying and removing harmful content, and said claims in the case misrepresent the facts.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
