After seeing how scary social media was for young girls, and how they were abused or worse by strangers, Raul Torrez felt there was only one way to solve the problem: drag Meta’s executives to court and hold them accountable.
“Algorithmic functions that serve predators, the very vulnerable children we know are currently on the platform, need to be reexamined,” New Mexico Attorney General Torrez told me.
A court trial currently underway in New Mexico, spurred by Torrez, accuses Mark Zuckerberg’s companies — including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — of putting children at “dual danger of sexual exploitation and mental health harm” through messaging, “sextortion” schemes and human trafficking.
A court trial is underway in New Mexico accusing Meta platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, of exposing children to sexually explicit material, “sextortion” schemes and human trafficking. Suzi Media – stock.adobe.com
The testimony of former Meta executive Arturo Béjar in the case caused a huge stir.
“The product is very good at connecting people to interests, and if your interest is little girls, it’s very good at connecting you to little girls,” he testified.
Behar claimed that his own underage daughter was bombarded with messages and nude photos from predators.
Led by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, New Mexico is suing Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta companies, which include Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, for allegedly causing harm to minors. Technology by Getty Images
“I was with her when she created the account,” Behar said. “I had no idea that this would bring predators to her door, people who assaulted her to her door, people who would ask her to sell nude photos of her as a teenager to her door.”
A spokesperson for Meta emphasized that the company has since added additional safety features, including preventing adults from having unwanted contact with minors and nudity protection filters to blur potentially explicit photos.
Torrez and his team saw firsthand what happens when they set up decoy accounts posing as 13-year-old girls. The “teen” was soon bombarded with explicit photos and offers from would-be predators.
“What we’re seeing is an explosion — first in the number of adult males following these accounts, but also in direct messages containing sexually explicit material, sexually explicit photos,” Torrez, a former child abuse prosecutor, told me.
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office released lewd messages between predators and decoys. Action Yuan Ai
In May 2024, Torrez announced the arrest of three predators as part of Operation MetaPhile.
They went to a hotel in New Mexico and had sex with someone they thought was a 13-year-old girl. All three are connected through Meta platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.
A 52-year-old man, Fernando Clyde, sent photos of his genitals to a minor’s account and said he wanted to rape her, make her cry and get her pregnant.
When Decoy sent him a photo of a friend she claimed “had just turned 11,” he responded: “Yeah. Really.”
Another man, Christopher Reynolds, was specifically targeted in the operation after the mother of an 11-year-old he contacted reported him to police.
Information from “Operation MetaPhile” released by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office revealed text messages between an adult man and what they believed was a 13-year-old girl. Action Yuan Ai
Reynolds told Bait he could find a motel where she was. “Can we please calm down for a moment? It could give us some time to process our kiss,” he wrote.
All three men are accused of soliciting children through electronic communications, and two of them are accused of attempting to sexually assault a minor.
Torrez claimed his undercover operation proved Meta was violating consumer protection laws and failing to inform customers of the harm its products could cause.
“I don’t think a jury will ultimately believe that a company with so many resources did enough to prevent this harm,” he told me.
Christopher Reynolds was arrested and charged with soliciting a child using an electronic communications device as part of Operation MetaPhile, in which the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office had someone impersonate a 13-year-old girl on social media. Action Yuan Ai
Marlon Kellywood was charged with attempted sexual assault of a minor as part of Operation MetaPhile. Action Yuan Ai
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri took the stand last week to defend the platform at the trial.
“I think we should do the best we can,” he said when asked whether Instagram should be trying to keep teens safe. “I think there are over two billion users on Instagram, which means there are millions of teens on Instagram. So when you say all that, I want to be clear that we are a big enough platform that sometimes there are issues, like, problematic content being seen.”
He added: “As the world changes, Instagram changes and the way people use the internet changes, the risks change, so there’s always more work to do.”
Torrez said he believed the testimony was part of a “consistent pattern of downplaying harm” by executives.
The trial is likely to last weeks before a jury decides whether Meta is responsible for harm on its platform.
Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineering and product lead at Facebook, testified in the New Mexico case that his own daughter was approached by a predator on Meta. Associated Press
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has testified in the New Mexico trial and another major trial in Los Angeles brought by a 20-year-old girl named KGM. AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, a jury is currently underway in Los Angeles in a major trial where a 20-year-old California girl, known as KGM, is suing Meta and Google, alleging that their platforms are intentionally designed to make children addicted.
A spokesperson for Meta said Torrez was “making sensational, irrelevant and distracting arguments by cherry-picking specific documents.”
“We are committed to demonstrating our long-term commitment to supporting young people,” the spokesperson said. “For more than a decade, we have listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research … to make meaningful changes.”
Torrez said the changes he hopes to see Meta make should be feasible.
“One of the most critical issues is [more stringent] Age verification,” he said, “so we have a clear understanding of the age of users in these spaces so we can carefully curate their experience. “
