Jury selection begins on Monday for a first-of-a-kind lawsuit against social media Meta. This trial would involve the New Mexico attorney general trying to prove his claim that Meta prioritizes profit over children’s safety.
Attorney general Raúl Torrez had claimed Meta’s social networks create dangerous environments for children, exposing them to sexual exploitation, solicitation, sextortion and human trafficking.
The lawsuit states that Meta’s design choices and profit incentives prioritized engagement over child safety and that it failed to implement effective safeguards. The state accuses the company of allowing unmoderated groups devoted to commercial sex and of facilitating the buying, selling, and sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Torrez’s office reportedly conducted an undercover operation that led to the arrests of three men, who investigators say sent sexual messages to agents posing as 12-year-old girls.
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“In each instance, the individuals who have been identified through the course of this investigation were able to find and locate these children through the design features and the algorithm that’s specifically set forth underneath these platforms,” said Torrez at a press conference in May 2024.
State prosecutors want the platform to be held accountable for pushing addictive or harmful algorithms to kids’ feeds. Meta tried to get the case dismissed, but a judge decided the case would move forward.
Meta denied the claims, saying “While the New Mexico attorney general makes sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments by cherry-picking select documents, we’re focused on demonstrating our longstanding commitment to supporting young people”.
Previously, a two-year investigation by The Guardian revealed that Meta was struggling to prevent people from using its platforms to traffic children. The investigation is cited several times in the suit’s filings. In an interview with the Guardian in 2024, Torrez said he believes
Meta is the “largest marketplace for predators and pedophiles globally”.
After a week of jury selection, opening statements are set to begin on 9 February, followed by the presentation of evidence. The proceedings are expected to be about seven weeks long, according to The Guardian.
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Social media companies have maintained for a long time that they are not responsible for crimes committed via their networks because of a US federal law that generally protects platforms from legal liability for content created by their users, section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
However, Meta’s attempts to involve section 230 and the First Amendment was denied by a judge’s ruling in 2024, because of the lawsuit’s focus on Meta’s platform product design and other non-speech issues, such as internal decisions about content and curation.
This comes during a time of growing concern about the impact of social media on children and teens. Meta, along with other companies like YouTube, Snap, and TikTok have been named in a different lawsuit that alleges they have intentionally designed their products to be addictive.
According to the plaintiffs, when young people are hooked, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and other mental health issues.