Facebook and Instagram Owner Meta Ordered to Pay $567m as Part of Landmark ‘Social Media Addiction’ Case
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million into a fund aimed at redressing the mental health harm caused by its platforms. The Thursday ruling adds to a $375 million penalty a jury imposed on the company in March, bringing the total Meta is now responsible for $942 million – one of the largest sums ever awarded in a case of this kind.
What happened
The ruling is the second phase of a trial New Mexico brought against Meta, which the state won in March 2026. At that stage, a jury found that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation occurring on its platforms, imposing the maximum penalty available: $375 million.
On Thursday, Judge Bryan Biedscheid ordered Meta to pay a further $567 million into a dedicated fund. According to the ruling, $420 million of that will go toward treatment services for young people in New Mexico, with the remainder allocated to awareness campaigns, prevention work, and screening services over the next five years.
Meta has said it disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal.
What the case Was about
The trial followed a 2023 Guardian investigation that found Facebook and Instagram had become marketplaces for child sex trafficking, with several former Meta moderators saying that reports of child grooming had been flagged internally but not escalated.
In the trial's second phase, prosecutors asked the court to impose structural changes at Meta, including improved age verification, tighter default privacy settings for young users, and closer oversight of features the state argued were designed to be addictive. The judge has ordered several such changes, including new banner and information screens explaining safety tools, and an educational campaign in New Mexico that will be subject to state review.
The court also addressed the thorny issue of age verification. Because federal children's privacy law prevents Meta from directly verifying the age of children under 13, and the judge ruled it would be "inequitable and unduly injurious" to single Meta out for stricter verification than other platforms, Meta has instead been ordered to keep improving its existing age-estimation tools – which use signals like a user's friend network and the content they post or engage with – and to build a dedicated "under-13 prediction model" within two years. Meta must also request proof of age from any New Mexico user it estimates may be under 13, treat unverified users as minors by default, and delete personal data it holds on users it identifies as under 13. It's required to report on its progress twice a year.
New Mexico's attorney general, Raúl Torrez, called the ruling "a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child."
Is this the first case of its kind?
It's the first case in which a jury has found Meta liable for harm caused on its own platform – a significant legal milestone, even though the $942 million total represents only a small fraction of the company's 2025 profit of roughly $60 billion.
It's also unlikely to be the last. Meta is currently facing similar lawsuits in multiple US states, including an ongoing trial in Tennessee, where the state alleges Meta ignored internal warnings about teenagers' compulsive use of Instagram and its links to eating disorders and depression. A further federal trial is expected in Oakland, California, later this month.
As Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University who focuses on social media and cybersecurity, put it: "America is not going to pass a law that bans social media. But if companies like Meta know they're causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in."
Does this affect UK users?
This ruling applies specifically to New Mexico state law and doesn't create any new legal rights for people in the UK. However, it lands amid growing regulatory scrutiny of social media platforms' impact on children and young people in the UK too, particularly under the Online Safety Act and Ofcom's expanding enforcement powers.
Whether similar large-scale legal action could ever be brought in the UK is a genuinely open question – the US legal system's approach to product liability and jury-awarded damages doesn't have a direct UK equivalent, and no comparable case has yet been tested here.
Can you claim for social media harm in the UK?
For too long, social media companies have prioritised engagement over safety.
If your child, or you when you were a child, used social media for three or more hours a day and suffered harm, you could be eligible to seek compensation. If you’re interested in a potential group claim in England and Wales, you can register your interest using the link below to receive updates about the claim, if it moves forward and how you can participate.
