New Mexico Attorney General Sues Meta And Mark Zuckerberg, Accused Of Failing To Protect Children From Sexual Harassment

Meta Platform CEO Inc., Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. (photo: Instagram @zuck)

JAKARTA - New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez announced on Wednesday 6 December that the state of New Mexico has sued Facebook and Meta Platforms, parent company Instagram, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The lawsuit states that the social media company has failed to protect children from sexual harassment, online fraud and human trafficking.

"Our investigation of social media platform Meta shows that they are not a safe space for children, but rather a key location for predators to share child pornography and approach children for sexual purposes," Torrez said.

Responding to the lawsuit, Meta stated that it uses advanced technology, recruits child security experts, reports content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as shares "information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorney generals, to help identify predators."

Meta also noted that only in August, they deactivated more than 500,000 accounts that violated child sexual exploitation policies.

Torrez insists that Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives "realized the serious impact their products have on young users, but failed to make adequate changes to their platforms to prevent sexual exploitation of children."

Previously, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen also announced a lawsuit against Meta, claiming that Instagram was deliberately designed to create addiction, especially for children.

The lawsuit against Meta is not the first. In October, more than 40 states in the United States have sued Meta, accusing the company of triggering a mental health crisis for teens by making their social media platforms addicted.

US Senators Ed Markey and Bill Cassidy on Tuesday, December 5, claimed that Meta deliberately avoided child privacy laws and called for the company to stop the practice.