{"id":31320,"date":"2026-08-07T17:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31320"},"modified":"2026-08-07T17:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:36:11","slug":"judge-calls-meta-public-nuisance-levies-567m-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31320","title":{"rendered":"Judge calls Meta &#8216;public nuisance,&#8217; levies $567M fine."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ic-cdn.flipboard.com\/wsoctv.com\/f6071dc0be30128a5d7e177c9dab2476dcf0c89b\/_xlarge.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">The parent company of Facebook and Instagram will have to pay more than half a billion dollars in fines because a judge found it did not do enough to protect children\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">The judge in New Mexico levied a penalty of $567 million against Meta in the second phase of a landmark trial, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\">The Associated Press<\/a> reported. Judge Bryan Biedscheid called Meta a \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d in the ruling, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\">The Washington Post<\/a> reported. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Most of the money, $420 million, will be used for treatment services while the remainder will go to pay for awareness, prevention, screening services and other items for the next five years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Biedscheid wrote, \u201cMeta\u2019s platforms create a public nuisance because their purpose and effect is to optimize engagement, including in ways that are detrimental to teenagers\u2019 health and safety,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\">Post<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Jurors had already ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after ruling that the social media juggernaut knowingly harmed children\u2019s mental health and concealed child sexual exploitation on the platforms. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Investigators acted as children as they tried to prove that the algorithms that run Facebook and Instagram connected youth with abusers, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2026\/08\/06\/new-mexico-judge-orders-meta-pay-567-million-child-harms-case\/\">Washington Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">The second part of the trial focused on the courts forcing Meta to make changes to its addictive features, improve age verification, and prevent child sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online,\u201d New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez said in a statement, the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\">AP<\/a> reported. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Meta is planning to appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">\u201cWe work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cWe remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Meta is also facing a trial in federal court in California, where the first four of 29 states are suing Meta, claiming the company is contributing to the youth mental health crisis, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/meta-court-ruling-mental-health-online-platforms-21b425faf745d0f736b310ebd8bc6b89\">AP<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph\">Several states filed lawsuits in state court as well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jyMHRV body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a9 2026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebookSdk\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parent company of Facebook and Instagram will have to pay more than half a billion dollars in fines because a judge found it did not do enough to protect children\u2019s mental health. The judge in New Mexico levied a penalty of $567 million against Meta in the second phase of a landmark trial, The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cmg-cmg-tv-10030-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com%2Fcmg%2FCMW6PUNNJVCVVJG4PBYBW527AA.jpeg?auth=d07b7243051f03807bf40fda1bc15326014ff1c3d21d892e5b1a3eead9b21494&width=1200&height=630&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}