STATE
AG seeks nearly $1 billion payment from Meta in second phase of trial
State prosecutors argue payment would be Meta鈥檚 鈥榚quitable share鈥� to remedy youth mental health
New Mexico Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez has asked a Santa Fe judge to order Meta, the social media giant that operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to pay $953 million to remedy harm to the state鈥檚 youth, recent court filings show.
In a nearly 300-page document filed late Friday evening, attorneys with the New Mexico Department of Justice argue that tens of thousands of New Mexico children and teenagers suffer from depression, eating disorders and suicide risk factors. Meta鈥檚 design features, including infinite scrolling and recommendation algorithms, have 鈥渟ubstantially contributed to the increase and severity of these problems,鈥� NMDOJ lawyers wrote in the filing.
The filing asked First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid to require Meta to pay $953 million into a fund meant to boost public education and behavioral health work aimed at kids and teenagers as Meta鈥檚 鈥渆quitable share of the cost of abating鈥� the harms done to New Mexico鈥檚 youth.
When the state , its expert witnesses testified that fully addressing these issues statewide could take 15 years and cost about $3.7 billion. Any money left unspent after the 15-year mark would be returned to Meta, the filing says.
The recent filings represent the written closing statements from both sides in the bench trial for New Mexico鈥檚 case against Meta. In the first phase of the case, a Santa Fe jury Meta to pay $375 million in damages to the state based on 75,000 violations of the state鈥檚 Unfair Practices Act, which Torrez has since against retailers who allegedly sell vapes to underage customers.
In a filing of its own Friday night, Meta鈥檚 attorneys argued that Torrez is seeking an 鈥渆xtraordinary expansion of the law of public nuisance.鈥�
Millions of teenagers 鈥渁round the world enjoy鈥� Meta鈥檚 apps 鈥渨ith positive benefits and, for the vast majority of people, no ill effects,鈥� company lawyers wrote.
They also argued that Torrez is inappropriately alleging a public nuisance. If a user was a victim of bullying or sexual extortion or if someone suffered depression after seeing other people on their social media feeds having fun, those should be considered individual harms and not a broader danger to rights widely held by the public, they wrote in their Friday filing.
The state鈥檚 request for Meta to pay into an abatement fund is analogous to forcing a factory that polluted a lake to pay for every cancer patient鈥檚 treatment for the next 15 years, they wrote, adding that the proper solution in that scenario would be to order an end to the pollution.
In an email to Source NM, a Meta spokesperson wrote that the state鈥檚 demands would 鈥渞isk leaving teens less safe, infringe on parental rights and stifle free expression.鈥�
鈥淓ven the judge has noted those mandates could be an 鈥榦verreach,鈥欌�� the spokesperson wrote, in reference to Biedscheid鈥檚 in May that he held 鈥渟ome concerns鈥� about the NMDOJ鈥檚 demands. 鈥淭he state鈥檚 case ignores the hundreds of apps teens use daily and fails to provide scientific or legal justification for their demands of Meta. We remain committed to providing safe, age-appropriate experiences and have already launched many of the protections the state seeks, including 13 safety measures this past year.鈥�
In court last month, Meta鈥檚 attorneys argued that the company had already implemented many of the safety measures Torrez is seeking, including blocking adults from messaging children with whom they aren鈥檛 connected and limiting adults from sending 鈥渦nreasonable鈥� amounts of friend requests or messages to underage users.
