Meta bad, but losing Section 230 worse

This week, Meta lost landmark cases in New Mexico and California and has to pay close to $400 million in damages across both. Never one to waste an opportunity to say something that’s going to piss everyone off for no reason, Meta’s Head of Communications Andy Stone bragged on X after the ruling in California, “Just a fraction of what the State sought.” Haha everyone thought we caused so much harm we were supposed to pay even more money actually!

Stone’s more official statement was a bit wordier: “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.” Which anyone who has ever used Facebook or Instagram knows is simply not true. They have a terrible record… for everything!

Meta spent the trial in New Mexico arguing their platforms have safeguards against child predators and the prosecutors spent the trial showing a jury exactly how easy it is for a child predator to prey on children using Meta’s platforms. They also revealed messages from Meta employees that seemed to imply many of them were worried about Facebook Messenger’s end-to-end encryption facilitating child sexual abuse.

Now, I enjoy watching Meta eat shit as much as the next red-blooded American. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life stuck in worthless conversations with that company’s employees about their appalling safety standards around the world. I’m surprised Stone didn’t trot out the other excuses they give reporters when bad things show up on the platform, which is usually either “we don’t know how our algorithm works” or “it’s the users’ fault for wanting to see that stuff.” But I am more than a little freaked out by what New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said in an interview with CNBC following the verdict.

“One of the things that I am really focused on is how we can change the design features of these products, at least within New Mexico,” he said. “And that would create a standard that could then be modeled elsewhere in the country, and, frankly, around the world.” No!!! New Mexico should not be telling the whole world how to do anything.

Anyways, Meta’s legal loss in New Mexico this week is part of a broader attack on digital freedoms in the US right now. There are age verification laws popping up in states across the country, bills that would eliminate end-to-end encryption entirely, and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would force platforms to censor content for minors, which would mean building tools that could determine who is a minor and who is not. All of these bills are meant to bypass or dismantle Section 230, the statute that basically makes the internet in the US work.