Unredacted complaint alleges Meta knew of ‘huge volume’ of child sexual harassment on its platforms

A new legal filing about child exploitation on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps alleges a 2021 internal company estimate found as many as 100,000 children every day received sexual harassment, such as pictures of adult genitalia, on the platforms.

This was revealed in newly unredacted portions of a complaint from the attorney general of New Mexico in an ongoing lawsuit against the social media giant over the company’s steps to protect children online as the platforms exploded in popularity with young people. 

Also included in the complaint is a description of a 2020 Meta internal company chat, in which one employee asked a colleague: “What specifically are we doing for child grooming (something I just heard about that is happening a lot on TikTok)?”

“Somewhere between zero and negligible,” the colleague responded. “Child safety is an explicit non-goal this half.”