SANTA FE, New Mexico — The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office alleged that Meta Platforms lied about the harms its platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, pose to teens and children in a landmark lawsuit against the social media giant.
Evidence showed that Meta raked in profits while concealing the harms its platforms pose to children, said Attorney Don Migliori, representing New Mexico, in a Santa Fe courtroom.
Migliori accused Meta of “downplaying or outright lying about what it knows about the dangers of its platforms.”
He said the state will call former employees of the social media giant who raised internal warnings. The state will also present child welfare experts as witnesses, Migliori added.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the lawsuit against Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2023.
The complaint alleges that Meta knew that Facebook and Instagram could be unsafe for minors. Publicly, however, it minimized or misrepresented these risks.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom on Monday, Torrez said that a win in this case could also result in the court telling Meta to change how its platforms operate. The company could also face financial penalties amounting to billions of dollars.
Torrez said a New Mexico win against Meta will “completely change the narrative about what they claim is possible everywhere else.”
Meta, in its defense, has rejected the allegations.
Kevin Huff, one of the lawyers representing Meta, told the court during the opening statements that the company has been transparent about the limits of its safety measures.
He said his client regularly publishes reports on the prevalence of child sexual abuse material and other harmful content. And it consistently worked to remove harmful material from its platforms.
Meta informed the public of these risks, Huff claimed. “It didn’t deceive anyone.”
The trial is expected to last about seven weeks.
New Mexico is the first U.S. state to hold the company accountable for the alleged harms it caused to children.