A U.S. court on Thursday slammed Meta, parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, with a $567 million fine over social media harm and addiction among youth and ordered it to change how young people can use its platforms.
A New Mexico judge, Bryan Biedscheid of the State District Court in Santa Fe, issued the ruling, the largest fine against the tech giant over issues bordering on child safety.
“Although Meta is not alone in this regard, its social media platforms are a significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth, established by the substantial evidence in this case,” Mr Biedscheid ruled.
“Just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement,” the judge stated.
Thursday’s $567 million fines against Meta come as an addition to the $375 million fine the tech giant was earlier ordered to pay in March over the same legal battle, bringing the total fine Meta is to pay to $ 942 million.
According to the ruling, the $567 million will be channelled into fixing some of the damage caused by Meta, including funding “appropriate clinical or other behavioural health programs and professionals” for young people.
Part of the fine will also go into training on awareness, prevention and how to manage social media harms to children.
In a statement on Thursday, Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said the tech giant would appeal the ruling.
He said, “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”