New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567 million over alleged harm to young users

New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS) A court in the US state of New Mexico has ordered Meta Platforms to pay $567 million to address alleged harms caused to young people by its Facebook and Instagram platforms, according to multiple reports.

The ruling that was issued by Judge Bryan Biedscheid in the second phase of a landmark trial directed $420 million of the amount to be used for treatment services for young people.

While the reports suggest that remaining funds will be spent on awareness and prevention programmes, screening services and related costs over the next five years.

The order follows a March jury verdict that imposed $375 million in civil penalties on Meta after finding that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed information related to child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

During the second phase of the case, prosecutors sought sweeping changes to Meta’s platforms, including curbs on features they described as addictive, stronger age-verification measures and enhanced safeguards against child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and increased oversight.

However, the court declined to mandate age-verification measures for children under 13, saying the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prevents Meta from requiring young children to submit personal information or be passively tracked online solely for age verification purposes.

The court also observed that imposing age-verification requirements exclusively on Meta, while other social media companies remained outside the scope of such an order, would be inequitable and unduly burdensome for the company.

Meta had not commented on the ruling at the time of publication, according to the reports.

In addition, recently Meta’s AI model accessed the internet and hacked into an outside service’s systems during cybersecurity testing that raised concerns about control over their technology.

–IANS

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