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Meta ordered to pay $567M US over child safety lawsuit · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Turning to the US now, where a New Mexico court
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: has ordered Meta to pay more than half a billion
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: dollars to address the mental health harms to young people
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: that have been linked to Facebook and Instagram. Linda Ward
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: is digging into that for us. What's this case all about?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you have to go back to March, to the
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  Speaker 2: first phase of this case, because the judge actually divided
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: it into two parts. So the first phase back in
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: March had to do with the risks from Meta's platforms.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Back then, the jury found that Metta's apps harmed children's
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: mental health and focused on money over safety, finding them
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: three hundred and seventy five million dollars. This one was
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to consider whether Meta's platforms created a public nuisance. So
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: the judge found rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicide
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  Speaker 2: among youth in New Mexico had significantly worsened in recent
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: years and said Meta's plan platforms are a significant contributing
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: cause to the crisis, so they are. Indeed, the judge
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  Speaker 2: found a public nuisance, ordering Meta to pay another five
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: hundred and sixty seven million dollars. So all of this
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  Speaker 2: total is more than nine hundred million dollars. So far,
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  Speaker 2: about half of this money to go to treatment centers
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  Speaker 2: for young people, the rest to awareness and prevention Now.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Prosecutors also ask Meta to get asked a judge to
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: get Meta to limit some of the addictive features and
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  Speaker 2: to better verify age, but because of federal privacy laws,
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  Speaker 2: Meta isn't able to do that, so instead, the court
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: ordered Meta to use AI to see who kids are
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  Speaker 2: friending online what they're posting to determine what their age is.
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  Speaker 2: A number of other measures as well that were part
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  Speaker 2: of this ruling, better banners to explain protection features, removing
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: like counts for those under the age of eighteen, no
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  Speaker 2: push notifications during the hours of ten pm and seven am,
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  Speaker 2: and limiting the amount of time that underage users can
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  Speaker 2: be on these platforms to ninety hours per month. New
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  Speaker 2: Mexico's Attorney General Raul Torres said in a statement, Today's
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  Speaker 2: decision is a victory for every parent who has worried
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  Speaker 2: about what social media is doing to their child, and
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  Speaker 2: every child who deserves to grow up safer online.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: A victory if it's upheld. What is Meta saying about
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: an appeal.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're saying they're going ahead with an appeal. On
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: this one, and they did issue a statement of their
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  Speaker 2: own yesterday saying we work hard to keep people safe
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  Speaker 2: on our platforms, saying we have been transparent about the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content.
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  Speaker 2: We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online
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  Speaker 2: and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent
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  Speaker 2: the facts. And they will have to continue to defend
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: themselves because they face thousands of lawsuits from parents, eight
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: hundred lawsuits from just school districts alone, And then next
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  Speaker 2: week there is a big child that is starting against
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  Speaker 2: Meta in California. So this is a case filed by
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  Speaker 2: attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, essentially
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  Speaker 2: the four first test states out of twenty nine total
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  Speaker 2: states that are suing for features on Instagram on Facebook
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  Speaker 2: that are said to be addictive to children. There's also
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  Speaker 2: eight states filing lawsuits in their own state courts, one
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  Speaker 2: actually going on in Tennessee right now. So a lot
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  Speaker 2: of legal troubles for this company. Nine hundred and forty
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  Speaker 2: two million dollars though in total for a company that
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: made sixty billion dollars last year is a drop in
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  Speaker 2: the bucket peanuts, really, But Meta said in this court
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  Speaker 2: ruling these four states would total one point four trillion
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: dollars in penalties if it is awarded, so that would
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: take a bigger bite out of their bottom line. But
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: it's worth noting after yesterday's ruling, investors didn't really seem
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to care after hours trading shares down less than half
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  Speaker 2: a percent.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Certainly at the beginning of this onslaught though of legal challenges,
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  Speaker 1: something will.
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  Speaker 2: Shift lots ahead for this company. I'm sure.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: All right, thanks so much, You're welcome.