The jury found that Meta violated New Mexico’s consumer protection law. Meta had denied the allegations, saying it has extensive safeguards in place to protect younger users.
A New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta Platforms violated state law in a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general, who accused the company of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms.
The jury found that Meta violated New Mexico’s consumer protection law and ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties.
The jury’s decision capped a six-week trial and marked the first jury verdict on these claims against the social media company, as it faces a broader challenge over how its platforms affect young people’s mental health.
Noice.
If we could add three zeros to the end of that amount for the next trial, it might have an impact.
I’m no math expert or finance guru, but thats about 0.19% of Meta 2025 revenue.
I got a speeding ticket last year and the fine was 0.3% of my yearly income.
Three zeros and some jail time for the executives.
If the punishment of a crime is a fine then the law is only meant to be used against poor people.
There needs to be prison for the people in charge.
One state proved it. Time to rinse and repeat
The problem is that the court also said that E2EE prevented more evidence from being gathered.
So what percentage is that amount compared to how much they made from that data? If it’s less than 200% this is a joke amount. We desperately need to make it financially irresponsible to continue with this kind of behavior. We can just let them break even, or walk away with anything they made from the data.
Now make them pay the same in the other 49 states, too, and we are getting somewhere.
