- Meta has been hit by another huge fine in New Mexico
- The ruling judge compared Meta’s apps to polluting factories
- Meta says it’s going to appeal the decision
Meta is in more legal trouble over the harms that its products — specifically Instagram and Facebook — can do to children, with a New Mexico judge slapping a $567 million (£422 million / AU$805 million) fine on the company, and suggesting that the damage done by these apps is akin to “noxious pollution” from factories.
As reported by CNN, the latest court ruling and financial penalty says that Meta’s suite of apps “create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement”.
Meta has said that it will appeal the decision, but its lawyers should recognize the factory analogy: they used it themselves during the original trial that got underway in February (via Courthouse News Service), arguing that a town factory shouldn’t necessarily be held responsible for wider community problems it has nothing to do with.
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The aim of Meta’s lawyers in using the factory example was to limit the fines and measures imposed by the court, but it only partly worked. The mention of schools, hospitals, and law enforcement shows that the judge in the case, First Judicial District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid, thinks Meta has wider problems to answer for.
Mental health support
Most of the money that’s being demanded from Meta — $420 million of it — is specifically earmarked for supporting community and family-based mental health services for the young people of New Mexico. The rest will be going towards mental health screening, prevention campaigns, and referral programs.
The latest fine is on top of the $375 million (£279 million / AU$533 million) in civil penalties that Meta was previously ordered to pay by a jury. This second part of the trial, with only a judge presiding, has now officially declared Instagram and Facebook a “public nuisance” in the eyes of the law.
There’s more to the ruling than financial hits too. Meta is being ordered to delete all the accounts and data of users aged under 13, to turn off notifications from 8am-3pm on weekdays and from 10pm-7am on other days for users under 18 — at least in New Mexico. New accounts set up by teens should also be private by default, the judge has said.
Don’t expect any of this to be implemented soon though — Meta has said it’s going to appeal these decisions, which is likely to take an extended period of time. Even so, it’s more evidence that the harms that social media can do to youngsters are now better understood, and that further action is very likely.
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