Court orders Meta to pay nearly a billion dollars: The full story

A court in New Mexico has ordered the technology giant Meta to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to address the damages caused to young people using its platforms. Together with a fine imposed earlier this year, the total amount the company has been ordered to pay as part of the proceedings reaches at least 942 million dollars.

The company is required to establish a fund of 567 million dollars to address the harm caused to youth. This is in addition to civil fines totaling 375 million dollars ruled by a jury in March. Out of the new fund, approximately 420 million dollars are earmarked for treatment services, prevention programs, awareness-raising, and monitoring over the next five years.

This marks the second stage of the lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico against Meta. In the first stage, the jury determined that the company violated consumer protection laws and misleadingly presented the safety level of Facebook and Instagram for young users. The state argued that Meta designed its products to encourage prolonged and addictive use while failing to adequately protect children from sexual exploitation and harmful content.

The significance of the verdict extends beyond financial penalties. The court ordered Meta to implement a series of changes to its systems for young users in New Mexico over five years. Specifically, the company must:

1. Limit the usage time of teenagers on Facebook and Instagram.

2. Reduce notifications during certain hours.

3. Tighten restrictions on contact between adults and minors.

4. Hide by default the number of "likes" on content displayed to young users.

The ruling also addresses the use of artificial intelligence. Meta is required to prevent children from having romantic or sexual conversations with its chatbots and to block adult users from operating AI systems to simulate or discuss sexual interactions with children.

Additionally, the company must improve its age-identification tools. The court determined that Meta must develop a dedicated system within two years to identify users under 13 by analyzing social connections and content consumption patterns. The company is also required to cooperate with schools and child protection organizations to establish a system allowing educational staff to report accounts suspected of belonging to underage children.

In response, Meta announced it would appeal the verdict. The company argued that it invests in identifying and removing harmful content and that the lawsuit presents its protection efforts in a distorted light. During the trial, it also contended that some of the state's demands are not technologically feasible.