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Facebook Guilty

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Eric Boehm | 3.25.2026 9:30 AM

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( Jens Büttner/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom)

Social media conglomerate Meta faces a $375 million penalty after a New Mexico jury decided that the company could be held liable for not doing enough to protect children from sexually explicit content.

That decision came at the end of a landmark seven-week trial that tested a legal cornerstone of the internet age: Can platforms be punished for content and speech created by users? The jury in New Mexico said that Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and the WhatsApp messaging service—had violated a state law banning deceiving or misleading business acts.

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"The jury's verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta's choice to put profits over kids' safety," New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement. "Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew."

A spokesperson for Meta told CNBC that the company will appeal the verdict: "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 New Mexico decision is the first major court ruling that holds Meta liable........

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