A judge in Santa Fe has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to pay $567 million and to make changes to how its platforms work for underage users.
According to the BBC, the New Mexico judge found that Meta had acted as a "public nuisance" through the way it has harmed children, and ordered the company to pay the sum on top of an earlier penalty.
CNBC reports that the money is to go into an abatement fund — money set aside to address and reduce ongoing harm rather than to compensate individual victims — as a remedy in the child-harms case. That order followed a jury finding that the company violated New Mexico's unfair practices act.
A report from KOB 4, summarized by Techmeme, says the judge ordered both the $567 million payment and changes to the user experience for juvenile accounts, after finding Meta's platforms helped create a public nuisance harming teens.
The combination matters more than the dollar figure alone. Fines are something large technology companies can absorb; court-ordered changes to how a product works for minors reach into the design of the apps themselves.
The "public nuisance" framing is also notable. It is the same broad legal theory that states used against opioid manufacturers and distributors, and its use here suggests state attorneys general have found a route to hold social media companies accountable for aggregate harm to young people — without needing to prove case-by-case injury.
Why it matters: if the public nuisance approach holds up, other states may follow New Mexico's lead, turning a single ruling into a template that forces social platforms to redesign how they treat children and teenagers.