Facebook and Instagram Steer Predators to Children, New Mexico Attorney General Alleges in Lawsuit

Facebook and Instagram recommend sexual content to underage users and promote minors’ accounts to apparent child predators, the state of New Mexico alleges in a lawsuit against parent company Meta Platforms and its CEO.

The civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New Mexico state court, alleges that “Meta has allowed Facebook and Instagram to become a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey.” It also claims that Meta has failed to implement protections against usage by children below the age of 13 and has targeted the age-related vulnerabilities of children in the interest of increasing its advertising revenue. The suit says Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is personally responsible for product decisions that aggravated risks to children on Meta’s platforms.