Meta on trial: Jury selection to begin in Santa Fe

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in a trial that pits New Mexico against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram and one of the world’s largest social media companies.

New Mexico’s legal challenge differs from thousands of other lawsuits filed against social media companies across the country by focusing on what the lawsuit argues is Meta’s failure to protect young people from sexual exploitation.

The complaint alleges that Meta “knowingly exposes children to the twin dangers of sexual exploitation and mental health harm.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the suit against Meta Platforms and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2023, alleging the parent company of Facebook and Instagram failed to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and human trafficking.

“Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram are a breeding ground for predators who target children for human trafficking, the distribution of sexual images, grooming, and solicitation,” the suit alleges.

The trial before Judge Bryan Biedscheid in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe is expected to last six weeks.

Torrez began his career as an internet crimes prosecutor who attempted to stop child solicitation and child exploitation, he recently told members of the Albuquerque Economic Forum.

“When I began doing that work in the early part of my career, people who were engaged in child exploitation had to go to the darkest corners of the internet to find that material,” Torrez said. “The predators that I used to target when I was a young prosecutor have now migrated to the biggest platforms on the planet.”

New Mexico brought the suit under the state’s Unfair Practices Act, which prohibits deceptive trade practices. The law requires the state to prove that Meta knowingly made false or misleading representations about the safety of its products.

Meta’s response

Meta argued in court records that it can’t be held liable for content shared by third-party users and that its practices are protected under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, “as courts nationwide have held.”

Congress passed Section 230 in 1996 to provide immunity from liability to online computer services for third-party content created by users. The law has been interpreted by courts to shield social media companies from liability as a “publisher” of material posted by users.

“Meta condemns all forms of sex trafficking and child exploitation,” the company wrote in a motion seeking to dismiss the suit. “But there is no legal basis for the State’s claims seeking to hold Meta liable for displaying content created and shared by third parties.”

States and individuals across the U.S. have filed thousands of lawsuits in state and federal courts against Meta and other social media companies, alleging the platforms are designed to lure young users into compulsive use, resulting in mental health problems.

Jury selection began last week in a state court in Los Angeles against Meta, YouTube, Snap and TikTok in which plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that social media is designed to be addictive, resulting in self-harm to users. Snap and TikTok have settled, but Meta and YouTube plan to fight the allegations.

Judge Biedscheid on Monday rejected Meta’s request to bar video and audio streaming of the trial. Meta's request had argued streaming the trial would put its employees at risk and hinder the company’s right to a fair trial in other cases.

Like the other lawsuits, New Mexico’s suit alleges that Meta platforms are addictive and harmful to teens, but it differs from many other suits by arguing that Facebook and Instagram are infested with sexual predators drawn to profiles created by teens and pre-teens.

“By their own account, Meta reports internally that 100,000 children a day ... are exposed to sexually explicit material or otherwise targeted for sexual exploitation just on their platform,” Torrez said at the Economic Forum.

 New Mexico lawsuit

Torrez described the suit as “one of the most aggressive lawsuits against Meta” in the nation and the first state-filed lawsuit to come to trial.

In preparing the suit, investigators created fictitious Facebook and Instagram accounts, including those for boys and girls in their early teens, complete with photos. One such account was promoted as being created by “Issa Bee,” a fictitious girl about 13 years of age, who “posted pictures of herself with signs of physical abuse.”

Issa “also has suggested she has been trafficked by friends and relatives,” the suit said. It alleges that Facebook “never alerted the account to authorities.” Issa’s profile quickly garnered 5,000 friends and 6,700 followers, most of them males ages 18-40.

“There is post after post from adult men, per their profile pictures, telling Issa they love her and calling her beautiful, sexy, or gorgeous,” the suit said. Facebook did not attempt to screen adult men or prevent them from sending her messages, it contends.

“Given its popularity, Facebook solicited Issa to set up a professional account, providing marketing outlooks and strategy suggestions from Meta on growing the account and her followers,” the suit alleges.

“Teens and preteens can easily register for unrestricted accounts because of a lack of age verification,” it alleges. “When they do, Meta directs harmful and inappropriate material at them.”

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers courts for the Journal. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.