Meta is accused of enabling child sexual exploitation. Now a New Mexico jury must decide

New York —

A lawsuit accusing Meta of failing to warn users about the dangers of its platforms and protect children from sexual predators is now in the hands of a New Mexico jury.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023 for allegedly creating a “breeding ground” for child predators on Facebook and Instagram, claims that the company denies. If the jury sides with New Mexico, Meta could be on the hook for billions in damages. A later portion of the case to be presented directly to the judge could also force Meta to make changes to its platforms.

Closing arguments on Monday followed a six-week trial that included testimony from Meta executives and former employees-turned-whistleblowers. Details from the attorney general’s undercover investigation into child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms, which led to three arrests, were also discussed in the courtroom.

The case is part of a wave of legal pressure Meta and other social media platforms are facing over the safety of young users. As jurors in New Mexico state court begin to deliberate, jurors in Los Angeles are considering a separate case against Meta and YouTube accusing them of intentionally creating addictive features that harmed a young woman’s mental health. Social media giants are also facing hundreds of other cases from individuals, school districts and state attorneys general — some of which are set to go to trial later this year.

The New Mexico jury will decide whether Meta has willfully made false and misleading statements about the safety of its platforms or engaged in “unconscionable” practices by knowingly designing its platforms to harm young people.

“I think the jury has seen a lot of what we have known for the last couple of years, and that’s just a treasure trove of evidence that Meta has known about the danger of their products, the danger of their platforms and the way in which they’ve built something that is truly harmful for kids,” Torrez told CNN in an interview ahead of closing arguments Monday.

A Meta spokesperson on Monday pointed to an earlier statement saying that the New Mexico lawsuit “makes sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments by cherry picking select documents” and disregarding the company’s “longstanding commitment to supporting young people.” Meta attorney Kevin Huff argued in court that the company has been honest with users that some bad actors and inappropriate content can slip through its safety filters. But he said Meta employs 40,000 people working on safety and invests heavily in measures to protect young users.

“For over a decade, we’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the Meta spokesperson said. “We use these insights to make meaningful changes – like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with tools to manage their teens’ experiences. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

Jury to consider if Meta willfully misleads and harms kids

The New Mexico attorney general’s office created multiple fake Facebook and Instagram profiles posing as children as part of its investigation into Meta. Those test accounts encountered sexually suggestive content and requests to share pornographic content, the suit alleges.

The fake child accounts were allegedly contacted and solicited for sex by the three New Mexico adult men who were arrested in May of 2024. Two of the three men were arrested at a motel, where they allegedly believed they would be meeting up with a 12-year-old girl, based on their conversations with the decoy accounts.

During the trial, the state argued Meta failed to do enough to prevent bad actors on its platforms from contacting kids.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez speaks during a rally on holding social media companies accountable for protecting teens on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. Torrez accuses Meta of failing to keep New Mexico teens safe. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech

Ex-Meta engineering director-turned-whistleblower Arturo Bejar testified about his efforts to warn Meta executives after he says his own 14-year-old daughter received sexual solicitations on Instagram. And he claimed that the highly personalized algorithms that make Meta’s platforms so successful at serving ads can also benefit predators.

“The product is very good at connecting people with interests, and if your interest is little girls, it will be really good at connecting you with little girls,” Bejar said.

Former Meta Vice President of Partnerships Brian Boland testified that he “absolutely did not believe that safety was a priority” to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg when he left the company in 2020. Instagram head Adam Mosseri, conversely, testified that Meta has rolled out safety features such as Teen Accounts despite their negative impact on growth and engagement.

The New Mexico case also raised concerns that allowing teens to use end-to-end encryption on Instagram chats — a privacy measure that blocks anyone other than sender and receiver from viewing a conversation — could make it harder for law enforcement to catch predators. Midway through trial, Meta said it would stop supporting end-to-end-encrypted messaging on Instagram later this year.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the encryption decision.

A Meta spokesperson previously told CNN that “child exploitation is a horrific crime and we’ve spent years building technology to combat it.” Meta’s Head of Child Safety Policy Ravi Sinha testified about the company’s work with law enforcement to prevent and report instances of child exploitation.

The company’s lawyers questioned the legitimacy of the New Mexico investigation, accusing the attorney general’s office of using hacked or stolen accounts and photos of real, non-consenting children to lure predators. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called it “ethically compromised” in a series of posts on X last month.

Torrez called those criticisms a “distraction.”

“One of the most common things is to lash out and try and attack an investigation, rather than to really focus on their own accountability,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something that the jury is really going to fall for.”