New Mexico prosecutors have alleged that Meta prioritised profit over child safety, even as child abuse surged on Instagram and Facebook. The landmark trial, now in its fifth week, has seen the state attorney general rest its case on 5 March, with Meta’s defence expected to continue for another week before jury deliberations.
Central to the case are internal company documents, including an email to Instagram head Adam Mosseri stating that “Instagram had become the leading two-sided marketplace for human trafficking”. Prosecutors have presented evidence of delays and deficiencies in Meta’s ability to detect and report child sexual abuse material and trafficking.
The defence has rejected the allegations as “sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments”, arguing that Meta invests heavily in safety features. Mosseri and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that preventing all harms on platforms with billions of users is impossible, with Mosseri stating: “We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it.”
The trial follows a 2023 Guardian investigation revealing Meta’s difficulty in stopping child trafficking on its platforms. The cases question whether Meta can protect its younger users while needing to recruit them for growth. Child safety advocates have noted that encryption of Messenger and a backlog in abuse reports have hindered investigations.
Internal emails showed that Zuckerberg made teens the company’s top priority in 2017, though he denied targeting under-13s. Meta faces global regulatory scrutiny, with countries considering age restrictions similar to Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s. If the trials result in liability for child sexual abuse trafficking and intentional addiction, lawmakers may further restrict Meta’s access to young users.
