Meta’s historic loss in court could cost a lot more than $375 million
Meta’s historic loss in court could cost a lot more than $375 million
Meta 历史性的法庭败诉代价可能远超 3.75 亿美元
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez won a historic sum of $375 million in a landmark child safety case against Meta earlier this year. But the next stage of the fight could be even more consequential for Meta and the social media industry at large.
今年早些时候，新墨西哥州总检察长劳尔·托雷斯（Raúl Torrez）在一场针对 Meta 的里程碑式儿童安全案件中赢得了 3.75 亿美元的历史性赔偿。但这场博弈的下一阶段对 Meta 以及整个社交媒体行业来说，可能影响更为深远。
Beginning Monday, attorneys for Meta and New Mexico will return to a Santa Fe courthouse for a three-week public nuisance trial, where they’ll argue over the changes the AG wants the judge to order Meta make to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Those changes include adding age verification for New Mexico users, prohibiting end-to-end encryption for users under 18 and capping their use to 90 hours per month, limiting engagement-boosting features like infinite scroll and autoplay, and requiring Meta to detect 99 percent of new child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
从周一开始，Meta 和新墨西哥州的律师将回到圣达菲法院，进行为期三周的“公害诉讼”（public nuisance trial）。届时，双方将就总检察长要求法官强制 Meta 对 Facebook、Instagram 和 WhatsApp 进行的改革展开辩论。这些改革措施包括：为新墨西哥州用户增加年龄验证；禁止 18 岁以下用户使用端到端加密，并将他们的使用时间限制在每月 90 小时以内；限制无限滚动和自动播放等旨在提升用户粘性的功能；并要求 Meta 能够检测出 99% 的新增儿童性虐待材料（CSAM）。
“From the outset, our goal was to try and change the way the company’s doing business,” Torrez told The Verge on a recent visit to Washington, DC, to advocate for new kids safety legislation. “I recognize that even at $375 million for a company this big and this profitable, it’s not enough in and of itself to change the way they’re doing business. In fact, there’s probably some folks in that company who think of it as the cost of doing business.”
“从一开始，我们的目标就是试图改变这家公司的经营方式，”托雷斯在最近访问华盛顿特区推动新的儿童安全立法时告诉《The Verge》。“我意识到，对于这样一家规模庞大且利润丰厚的公司来说，即便 3.75 亿美元的赔偿金本身也不足以改变他们的经营模式。事实上，公司里可能有些人只是把它看作是经营成本而已。”
While any changes ordered by the judge would only apply to Meta and its operations in New Mexico, the company could apply the changes in other states for the sake of simplicity. Or, as it’s threatened to do, it could simply go dark in the state. A court order could send a message to other tech companies that courts may be willing to alter their businesses if they’re found liable.
虽然法官下令的任何变更仅适用于 Meta 在新墨西哥州的业务，但为了简化流程，该公司可能会将这些变更推广到其他州。或者，正如它所威胁的那样，它可能会直接退出该州市场。法院的裁决可能会向其他科技公司发出一个信号：如果被认定负有责任，法院可能会强制要求改变其业务模式。
During the trial, New Mexico will argue Meta has become a public nuisance by creating a public health hazard in the state. The AG’s office expects to call on about 15 witnesses, including experts who will testify to the feasibility of their proposed remedies, and fact witnesses who will testify about Meta’s alleged harms. After Meta makes its defense, Judge Bryan Biedscheid will evaluate which proposals are relevant and feasible — a process that could take some time, compared to the speedy turnaround of the jury verdict in March.
在庭审期间，新墨西哥州将辩称 Meta 通过在该州制造公共健康危害，已构成“公害”。总检察长办公室预计将传唤约 15 名证人，包括就所提补救措施的可行性进行作证的专家，以及就 Meta 的所谓伤害进行作证的事实证人。在 Meta 进行辩护后，布莱恩·比德沙伊德（Bryan Biedscheid）法官将评估哪些提议具有相关性和可行性——与 3 月份陪审团迅速做出裁决相比，这一过程可能需要一些时间。
A sweeping win for New Mexico could energize Torrez and thousands of other plaintiffs currently pursuing cases against tech companies. Conversely, a limited order could be a significant blow. The outcome won’t directly impact other cases, but it will almost certainly color negotiations over potential settlements.
新墨西哥州的全面胜利可能会激励托雷斯以及目前正在起诉科技公司的数千名原告。相反，如果裁决范围有限，则可能是一个重大打击。虽然判决结果不会直接影响其他案件，但几乎肯定会影响未来潜在的和解谈判。
Several of Torrez’s requests are hot-button tech policy issues. Age verification would almost certainly require Meta or a third-party provider to collect more personal information on adults and minors alike, which privacy advocates have consistently warned can make users less safe. Don McGowan, who previously served on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), said that barring encrypted communications on platforms like Facebook “is a great way to make sure that nobody uses Facebook Messenger anymore and just moves their activity to other platforms that aren’t touched by this lawsuit.”
托雷斯的几项要求涉及科技政策中的热门争议话题。年龄验证几乎肯定需要 Meta 或第三方提供商收集更多成年人和未成年人的个人信息，隐私倡导者一直警告称，这反而会让用户变得更不安全。曾任国家失踪与受剥削儿童中心（NCMEC）董事会成员的唐·麦高恩（Don McGowan）表示，禁止 Facebook 等平台上的加密通信，“是确保没人再使用 Facebook Messenger，并将其活动转移到不受此诉讼影响的其他平台的绝佳方式。”
Peter Chapman, associate director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute, said there could be “significant tradeoffs” to a prohibition on encryption, and other changes may be more effective. For example, evidence presented by the state showed that Meta’s own profile recommendations were connecting adults and minors, a feature that poses a clearer danger of harm without much benefit, and which Torrez is also asking the court to stop. “There’s an opportunity to intervene at that level and try to prevent more of these harmful interactions from taking place without having to tackle encryption,” said Chapman.
奈特-乔治城研究所（Knight-Georgetown Institute）副主任彼得·查普曼（Peter Chapman）表示，禁止加密可能会带来“重大的权衡”，而其他改革措施可能更有效。例如，州政府提供的证据显示，Meta 的个人资料推荐功能将成年人和未成年人联系在了一起，这一功能在没有带来多少好处的情况下，构成了更明显的伤害风险，托雷斯也要求法院停止该功能。“我们有机会在这一层面进行干预，在不必处理加密问题的情况下，尝试防止更多此类有害互动发生，”查普曼说道。
No single feature change is likely to solve the entire child and teen safety problem, said Chapman, which is why it’s notable that Torrez plans to ask for several layers of changes. Still, the overall effectiveness of any given remedy will also depend on how it’s implemented and monitored. For instance, what would be the methodology Meta uses to report a 99 percent detection rate of new CSAM? How does it count or surmise what it hasn’t caught? The same goes for the accuracy and reliability of any mandated age verification.
查普曼表示，没有任何单一的功能调整能够解决整个儿童和青少年安全问题，这就是为什么托雷斯计划要求进行多层面的改革值得关注。不过，任何补救措施的整体有效性还将取决于其如何实施和监管。例如，Meta 将采用什么方法来报告 99% 的新增 CSAM 检测率？它如何统计或推测那些未被捕获的内容？强制年龄验证的准确性和可靠性也是如此。
Meta points to this potential issue in its argument against Torrez’s proposed remedies. “Regardless of where the accuracy threshold is set, Meta would never be able to prove that the system met that standard, because doing the calculation would require that Meta detect 100% of CSAM to use as the denominator,” the company wrote in a legal filing.
Meta 在反对托雷斯提出的补救措施时指出了这一潜在问题。该公司在法律文件中写道：“无论准确率门槛设定在哪里，Meta 都永远无法证明系统达到了该标准，因为要进行计算，就需要 Meta 检测到 100% 的 CSAM 才能作为分母。”