Facebook and Instagram promote minors’ accounts to child predators, according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday by the New Mexico attorney general’s office.
The lawsuit was filed in a New Mexico state court and alleges Mark Zuckerberg, in his chief executive role for parent company Meta, is personally responsible for extensive risks to children presented on the two social media platforms. The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office filed the lawsuit after investigating test accounts of teenagers on Facebook and Instagram that were allegedly connected to adults attempting to solicit underage sex.
“Meta has allowed Facebook and Instagram to become a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey,” the lawsuit, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, states.
The investigators set up accounts of teenagers and preteens with artificial intelligence-generated photographs. Meta algorithms allegedly recommended sexual content to these accounts, which were then flooded with sexually explicit messages and propositions.
One account pretending to be a 13-year-old girl allegedly gained thousands of adult followers, many of whom invited her to join private chat groups with sex content of adults and children, according to the lawsuit. The account was allegedly “filled with pictures and videos of genitalia, including exposed penises, which she received at least 3-4 times per week.”
Another account pretending to be a 13-year-old girl was allegedly suggested on its second day of activity to follow an account that posted adult pornography and had 119,000 followers.
Accounts set up as teenagers who expressed interest in sexual activity were quickly connected to predators, according to the lawsuit. Some joined dating groups on Facebook with no verification, where they were then solicited in private messages from adults. Others were followed by adults who apparently messaged them with child sex imagery and offered to pay for sex.
Meta issued a statement detailing its efforts to protect underaged users.
“We use sophisticated technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators,” it read, per the WSJ.
Meta established a task force in June to address child safety problems after a WSJ investigation revealed how Instagram’s algorithms connect users interested in child pornography. Additional investigations from the WSJ detailed how Meta struggled to counter the network of pedophiles who use Instagram and Facebook. The company said it removed 16,000 Facebook Groups and strengthened other safety policies.
Raúl Torrez, New Mexico’s attorney general, alleged that some prostitution solicitations in his office’s investigation of Meta were so vulgar that they referred them to law enforcement. The attorney general, who was a former prosecutor of internet crimes against children, said Meta has hidden the dangers its platforms create for children.
“The features of the platform itself are not engineered in a way to prevent this matchmaking from likely predators and likely victims,” Torrez said. “I incorrectly assumed, like a lot of parents, that a big, well-funded company like Meta would not have allowed itself to become an alternative venue for that activity.”