New Mexico is continuing to seek changes from Meta following a jury’s decision to hold the company liable for failing to safeguard children on its platforms, Attorney General Raúl Torrez told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We’re going to be asking for injunctive relief,” Torrez said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” about the next phase of the trial to address the state’s public nuisance claim.
“That means changes to the design features of the platform itself, real age verification, changes to the algorithm, an independent monitor to oversee those changes and fundamentally a demand that they do business differently in New Mexico,” he said.
A jury ruled Tuesday that Meta must pay the state $375 million for failing to adhere to New Mexico’s laws related to unfair practices. The state’s lawyers alleged that Meta misled residents about the safety of its apps with respect to child sexploitation and related harms.
The verdict could influence the outcomes of multiple, similar social media-related cases going forward in the U.S. and potentially inform future regulations going forward in the U.S. The safety of social media, especially for minors, has raised legal questions in high-profile cases that have been compared to ‘Big Tobacco’ trials of the 1990s.
A jury in a different personal injury trial involving Meta and Google’s YouTube has been deliberating in a Los Angeles Superior Court since March 12.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson said following the New Mexico jury’s decision.
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
The second phase of the trial, which will not be with a jury, begins May 4 and will determine whether Meta created a public nuisance and whether it must fund programs to address the alleged harms.
“We will be asking for more financial relief for the state of New Mexico to remedy that, to help support our kids and create a safe digital environment,” Torrez said.
Torrez said Wednesday that the state’s case focused on Meta’s products and how the company “created an environment which was both dangerous for kids and addictive.”
“We also were able to show that the company’s own safety team had been recommending for years and highlighting for years the dangers of these features,” he said. “They were repeatedly ignored by Mr. Zuckerberg and other executives. I think fundamentally, that’s what made the difference in this case.”
Torrez said the verdict was a message to the entire tech industry, and called for Congress to take action to regulate the space.
CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.
