TLDR
- A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay an additional $567m, bringing the total fine in this case to $942m over child safety failures.
- The judge declared Meta a “public nuisance,” the first time a social media company has received this designation.
- Meta said it disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal.
- The $420m majority of the new fine will fund treatment programs for harms already caused by Meta’s platforms.
- A major California trial involving nearly 30 state attorneys general begins next week.
Meta Platforms (META) is facing a $942m total bill after a New Mexico judge handed down an additional $567m ruling over child safety failures on its platforms.
🇺🇸 A New Mexico judge just ordered Meta to pay $942 million after finding the company exposed kids to harmful experiences on its platforms.
$375 million in penalties, and another $567 million into a fund meant to address the damage.
It’s the biggest hit Meta has taken yet over… pic.twitter.com/0LpWsvzaAS
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 7, 2026
Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled Thursday that Meta is a “public nuisance,” comparing the company to a factory whose product causes pollution. In this case, the pollution is psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children.
The $567m ruling comes on top of a $375m fine already ordered in the same case. Meta has said it will appeal both verdicts.
A Meta spokesman said: “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
The case was originally brought in 2023 by New Mexico’s attorneys general, arguing Meta’s recommendation algorithms steered young users toward harmful content and sexual predators.
In the first phase of the trial, Meta was found to have violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. Thursday’s ruling extended that finding to the level of public nuisance, a designation that has never before been applied to a social media company.
The judge wrote that Meta’s harms “do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world.”
Where the Money Goes
Of the $567m ordered Thursday, $420m is earmarked for clinical and behavioral health programs to treat harms already caused. The remainder will fund awareness and prevention training for teachers and healthcare professionals.
The judge also ordered a series of platform changes. These include banning adult users from messaging minors, eliminating “like” counts for users under 18, and restricting push notifications for underage users between 10pm and 7am daily.
Meta must also cap usage for users under 18 at 90 cumulative hours per month across Instagram and Facebook, roughly three hours per day.
A one-strike policy for adults who engage in child sexual exploitation was also mandated, along with a ban on nudity being sent or received by underage users.
Meta’s Financial Position
Despite the headline fine, Meta posted $61bn in revenue for the April to June quarter, up 28% year over year. For context, Bruce Daisley, former European VP at Twitter, called the New Mexico fine “a drop in the ocean” for the company.
Meta is currently facing thousands of similar lawsuits across the US. Earlier this year, it lost a landmark Los Angeles case that found it could be held liable for building addictive platforms.
Next week, a separate California trial begins with nearly 30 state attorneys general suing Meta for violating child privacy laws.
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