Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant
O juiz Bryan Biedscheid disse que a gigante das redes sociais é um "incômodo público" semelhante à poluição do ar e que deve colocar o dinheiro em um fundo destinado a reduzir danos futuros.
O juiz Biedscheid comparou Meta a uma fábrica, tendo a publicidade e o conteúdo como seu produto e “o dano psicológico e a exploração sexual das crianças como a poluição que deve ser diminuída”.
Um porta-voz da Meta, proprietária e operadora do Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp e Threads, disse na quinta-feira: "Discordamos da decisão e vamos recorrer".
"Trabalhamos arduamente para manter as pessoas seguras nas nossas plataformas e temos sido transparentes sobre os desafios de identificar e remover maus atores e conteúdos prejudiciais", acrescentaram.
"Continuamos confiantes em nosso histórico de proteção de adolescentes online e continuaremos a nos defender contra alegações que deturpam os fatos."
Meta is currently facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over similar issues. In addition to the New Mexico rulings, Meta earlier this year lost a landmark case in Los Angeles which found it could be held liable for building addictive platforms.
Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter (now X), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the New Mexico fine, while large, was "a drop in the ocean" for Meta.
"But it's an indication that we are moving to a stage where social media is going to be tackled around the world," he said.
Meanwhile, former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips told Today she believed US court challenges against big tech could enable the UK to take tougher action - without fearing it may damage UK-US diplomatic ties.
The New Mexico case stems from a 2023 lawsuit brought by state attorneys.
It argued Meta should be held liable for the way in which its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.
In the first phase of the trial, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act as its recommendation algorithms essentially "steered" young users toward harmful content and contacts.
Recommendation algorithms are the tools that Meta uses to automatically curate the content a user sees on its platforms.
In ruling on this second phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid found that Meta's harms reached the level of "public nuisance" - or an issue of health and safety that has become so widespread it is negatively impacting a general public.
In addition to being the largest fine Meta has received over child safety issues, the ruling also appears to be the first time that a social media company has been deemed a public nuisance.
In his ruling, the judge compared the "harmful effects" of the company's platforms on children to that the way in which "noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air".
Rather than remain confined to its platforms, he said, these effects "migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world".
These in turn create "a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families," as well as schools, hospitals and law enforcement, he said.
The fund that Meta has been ordered to create will be used to pay for efforts to mitigate "the wide-ranging impacts of the harm", Judge Biedscheid said.
Another chunk of the money will go towards training around awareness and prevention, including for teachers and health professionals on how to deal with social media harms against children.
The judge also ordered Meta to enact other measures, including ensuring that no account of a user under age 18 is recommended to an adult and that no adult can message an underage user.
The UK and EU also want platforms including Meta take similar steps to protect children on their sites, with recent efforts focusing on repairing mechanisms through which children can be seen or contacted online.
But many countries are also forging ahead with plans to ban children from social media entirely.
The UK recently said in addition to blocking under-16s from social media, platforms would also need to stop older teens using social media at night via opt-out "curfews".
Meanwhile, another major trial against Meta begins next week in California. Nearly three dozen US states' attorneys general are suing the company for violating child privacy laws.
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Fontes
Informação baseada em material público de BBC World, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
