Meta to face trial over alleged exploitation of minors
Illustrative photo: Meta will appear in court (Getty Images)
Meta Platforms, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, will face trial in the US state of New Mexico over allegations of sexual exploitation of children and teenagers on its platforms and profiting from it, according to Reuters.
This is the first such trial against the tech giant to be heard by a jury in the Santa Fe District Court and could last seven to eight weeks.
The lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Raul Torrez, alleges that Meta promoted illegal content and allowed criminals unrestricted access to underage users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. According to the prosecution, this often led to real-world abuse and human trafficking.
The case is supported by a 2023 undercover operation in which investigators created accounts posing as underage users. These accounts received sexually explicit material and interacted with adults, ultimately leading to criminal charges against three individuals.
In addition, the state accuses Meta of designing platforms with features that increase child engagement while harming their mental health, such as infinite scrolling and automatic video playback.
According to New Mexico, the company's internal documents acknowledge problems related to sexual exploitation and children's mental health. However, Meta allegedly failed to implement basic safety measures such as age verification and falsely portrayed its platforms as safe.
The state is seeking financial compensation as well as a court order to strengthen protections for underage users.
Meta denies all allegations, emphasizing that it has safety measures in place to protect children.
Lawsuits against Meta
It is recalled that earlier an international group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the US against Meta Platforms, Inc., accusing the company of spreading misleading information about the privacy and security of WhatsApp.
The plaintiffs claim that despite the company's statements about end-to-end encryption, which supposedly makes messages accessible only to the sender and the recipient, Meta stores, analyzes, and has access to nearly all private user chats. According to the lawsuit, the company and its management allegedly fraudulently mislead billions of WhatsApp users worldwide.
Meta said the lawsuit is "baseless" and promised to seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys.
It was previously reported that a class-action lawsuit seeking $3 billion has been filed against Meta. The claim alleges that the social network illegally collected personal data from 44 million British users over a four-year period.
RBC-Ukraine also reported that Meta generates significant revenue from advertising fraudulent schemes and prohibited goods on its platforms.
