Do you smell that? It’s the righteous air of JUSTICE sweeping in like a tornado to knock Mark Zuckerberg on his bony ass. The Meta CEO was booed at that UFC event a couple weeks ago — turns out that was just the warm up! By happy coincidence, two juries returned guilty verdicts this week on separate cases against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The first ruling came on Tuesday for a case where the New Mexico attorney general argued that Meta knew its platforms were putting children at risk for sexual exploitation. After a very short deliberation (I’ve watched enough Datelines to know that usually indicates a resounding “Guilty!” verdict), the NM jury slapped Meta with the maximum penalty allowed by law, $5,000 per violation. That doesn’t sound like much on its own, but there were so many violations that the grand total comes to a whopping $375 million. Has the ink dried yet on the lease of Zuck’s new $170M home?

NM AG Raúl Torrez: “Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew. Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”

Warnings ignored, evidence blocked, & a sting op: Internal Meta documents and testimony obtained by the New Mexico department of justice during the litigation revealed that both company employees and external child safety experts repeatedly warned about risks and harmful conditions on Meta’s platforms. Evidence presented to the jury included details of the 2024 arrest of three men charged with sexually preying on children through Meta’s platforms, and attempting to meet up with them. This was part of a sting investigation operated by undercover agents and dubbed “Operation MetaPhile” by the attorney general’s office. The New Mexico court heard how Meta’s 2023 decision to encrypt Facebook Messenger — its direct messaging platform, which predators have used as a tool to groom minors and exchange child abuse imagery — blocked access to crucial evidence of these crimes.

Money isn’t enough, the AG is seeking changes to the platforms: In the next phase of the legal proceedings, due to begin on 4 May, the attorney general’s office will seek additional financial penalties and court-mandated changes to Meta’s platforms that “offer stronger protections for children”, said Torrez. The design feature changes the state is seeking include “enacting effective age verification, removing predators from the platform, and protecting minors from encrypted communications that shield bad actors”.

This testimony is appalling: In taped depositions played at the trial, the Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram leader Adam Mosseri said harms to children, such as sexual exploitation and detriments to mental health, were inevitable on the company’s platforms due to their vast user bases.

[From The Guardian]

The Meta and Instagram chiefs actually said under oath that child sexual exploitation and impaired mental health were “inevitable” on their platforms?? With all due disrespect, those comments need to be tattooed on those men’s foreheads so they can never escape them. FFS. So that was Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and co-defendant YouTube negligent in warning users about the mental health risks of using their platforms, risks the companies were well aware of:

Jurors ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiff, who claimed that Meta and YouTube’s negligence played a “substantial factor” in causing mental health-related harms. Compensatory damages were assessed at $3 million, with Meta on the hook for 70% and YouTube the remaining 30%. Punitive damages amount to an additional $3 million, with $2.1 million to be paid by Meta and $900,000 by YouTube.

…It’s one of several trials taking place this year that experts have characterized as the social media industry’s “Big Tobacco” moment, comparing it with the 1990s, when tobacco companies were forced to pay billions of dollars for lying to the public about the safety and potential harms of their products.

…A federal trial is set to begin this summer in the Northern District of California involving similar, consolidated claims by school districts and parents nationwide. They claim apps from Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap helped foster detrimental mental health-related harms to young users.

A central legal strategy for prosecutors and plaintiff attorneys is to focus on alleged design flaws related to apps like Instagram and YouTube instead of specific content in order to counter arguments made by tech companies that they shouldn’t be held liable for certain third-party content on their platforms due to Section 230, which protects Internet speech.

[From CNBC]

Of course, Meta responded to each loss with “we respectfully disagree” and plans to appeal and yada yada yada. I try to guard against premature optimism these days, because of, well… [gestures to the entire world right now]. However, the one-two punch of these verdicts does feel significant. So I will not tamp down my cautious joy, while still anxiously awaiting to see how the federal trial unfolds this summer. May this indeed be social media’s “Big Tobacco” moment.

Photos credit: Javiles/Bruce/BACKGRID, Will Oliver/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com