Attorney General Ford Announces Win in Case Against Meta

Carson City, NV - Today, Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that the Eighth Judicial District Court found a reasonable likelihood that Meta violated the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act in regard to misrepresentations and material omissions the company made about the safety of its end-to-end encryption technology in its Messenger application. The court found that Meta did not disclose its knowledge of important child safety issues regarding its end-to-end encryption technologies and failed to divulge critical information that end-to-end encryption can create significant risks and harms for children. The court entered a preliminary injunction in the case. The order was issued earlier this month.
"Meta knew for years that the end-to-end encryption technologies that it used on its Messenger application opened up serious safety concerns about our country's children," said Attorney General Ford. "Meta intentionally hid information that would have allowed parents to make informed decisions about their children's online safety and risked the safety of Nevada's youth. I will not stop until they are held accountable."
The court enjoined Meta from making false statements or omissions regarding the safety end-to-end encryption in its Messenger application, including Messenger's integration with Meta's other platforms, for Meta's users of the Messenger who are Nevadans under the age of 18.

Attorney General Ford has made the defense of Nevada's children from predatory social media companies a priority during his time in office. The Office of the Attorney General currently has lawsuits pending against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord and Kik that accuse these companies of using harmful design features; failing to implement common-sense safety measures for children; and misleading the public regarding child users' safety. Several of the state's lawsuits also include products liability claims and economic damages that are unique to the Nevada Attorney General's jurisdiction to pursue consumer protection claims on behalf of Nevadans. The office is currently scheduled for trial against TikTok and Snap in 2027, and against Meta in early 2028.
Attorney General Ford's fight to hold social media companies accountable for the harms inflicted on Nevada's youth come as part of a national reckoning with these companies and the ways in which they have operated that posed Dangers for years. Earlier this year, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million monetary penalty for misleading the public about harms Meta knew to be lurking on its platforms. In addition, a jury in a separate California trial awarded $3 million to an individual who sued Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok over allegations that their harmful design had inflicted mental health harms on her when she was a teen.
A copy of the order is available here.

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