New Mexico AG files lawsuit against Meta and Zuckerberg to protect minors from human trafficking

New Mexico Democrat Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Meta platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging platforms are not safe for children and enable human trafficking and sexual abuse. 

“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Torrez wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “As a career prosecutor who specialized in internet crimes against children, I am committed to using every available tool to put an end to these horrific practices and I will hold companies — and their executives — accountable whenever they put profits ahead of children’s safety.” 

Torrez revealed that his office carried out an undercover investigation on Meta's platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. 

During this investigation, the office made decoy accounts of minors 14 and under and reported that it collected evidence that the Meta platforms allowed users to find, share, and sell an enormous volume of child pornography and "proactively served and directed the underage users a stream of egregious, sexually explicit images — even when the child has expressed no interest in this content."

You can read the complaint here: 

“Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta executives are aware of the serious harm their products can pose to young users, and yet they have failed to make sufficient changes to their platforms that would prevent the sexual exploitation of children,” Torrez said. 

Torrez said that investigators found that child exploitative content is more prevalent on Facebook and Instagram than it is on Pornhub and OnlyFans.

Meta has not responded for comment at this time.