Meta Goes to Trial in a New Mexico Child Safety Case. Here’s What’s at Stake
Today Meta went for trial in the state of New Mexico for allegedly failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation on its apps, including Facebook and Instagram. The state alleges that Meta violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act by implementing design features and algorithms that created dangerous conditions for users. Now, more than two years after the case was filed, opening arguments have begun in Santa Fe.
It's a big week for Meta in court: A historic social media trial also begins today in California, the nation's first legal test of social media addiction. That case is part of a “JCCP,” or judicial council coordinated proceedings, which brings together many civil cases that focus on similar issues.
The plaintiffs in that case claim that social media companies designed their products in a negligent manner and caused various harms to minors using their apps. Snap, TikTok, and Google were named as suspects alongside Meta; Snap and TikTok have already established. The fact that Meta hasn't means that some of the company's top executives could be called to the witness stand in the coming weeks.
Meta executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, likely won't testify live in the New Mexico trial. But the procedure can still be remarkable for a few reasons. It is the first stand-alone, state-led case against Meta to actually go to trial in the US. It's also a highly charged case alleging child sexual exploitation that will ultimately lean on highly technical arguments, including what it means to “mislead” the public, how algorithmic amplification works on social media, and what protections Meta and other social media platforms have through Section 230.
And while Meta's top brass may not be required to appear in person, executive depositions and testimony from other witnesses could still offer an interesting look at the inner workings of the company as it established policies on underage users and responded to complaints that it didn't do enough to protect them.
Meta has so far given no indication that it plans to settle. The company has denied the allegations, and Meta spokesman Aaron Simpson previously told WIRED, “While New Mexico makes sensational, irrelevant and distracting arguments, we are focused on demonstrating our longstanding commitment to supporting young people… We are proud of the progress we have made, and we are always working to do better.”
Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a tech industry watchdog, said in an emailed statement that these two trials “represent the split screen of Mark Zuckerberg's nightmares: a landmark trial in Los Angeles on children's addiction to Facebook and Instagram, and a trial in New Mexico that exposed how Meta enabled predators to use social media to exploit and abuse children.”
“These are the trials of a generation,” Haworth added. “Just as the world saw courtrooms hold Big Tobacco and Big Pharma accountable, for the first time we will see Big Tech CEOs like Zuckerberg take the stand.”
The cost of doing business
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed his complaint against Meta in December 2023. In it, he alleged that Meta proactively served explicit content to underage users, enabled adults to exploit children on the platform, allowed Facebook and Instagram users to easily find child pornography, and allowed an investigator in the case, who claimed to be a mother, to offer her underage daughter to sex traffickers.
The trial is expected to take place in seven weeks. Jurors were selected last week, a panel of 10 women and eight men (12 jurors and six deputies). New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid presided over the case.
