New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health(theguardian.com)
802 points by boplicity 15 days ago | 427 comments
tl;dr: A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567m into a fund for youth mental health services, on top of a $375m jury fine from March, bringing total liability to $942m. The court also mandated product changes including improved age-assurance tools, a required "under-13 prediction model" within two years, and deletion of data collected from under-13 users, though it declined to impose stricter age verification than competitors face. Meta plans to appeal.
HN Discussion:
  • Fine is significant relative to New Mexico's small population size
  • Social media platforms are genuinely addictive and harmful like drugs
  • ~Fine is too small to matter, just cost of doing business for Meta
  • Parents should take responsibility, not government regulation
  • Ruling is politically motivated censorship pressure on Big Tech