A researcher for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, warned executives at the tech giant that there may be upward of 500,000 cases of sexual exploitation of minors per day on the social media platforms.

Meta will be in court Monday as opening arguments begin in a case brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez against the social media company, which he has accused of exposing children to “sexual exploitation and mental health harm” through interactions on the platform.

In a court filing obtained by FOX Business, attorneys for the state of New Mexico noted that Malia Andrus, who worked in child safety roles at Meta from 2017 to 2024, said in an internal email included in court filings that sexually inappropriate messages were sent to “~500k victims per DAY in English markets only.” 

“We expect the true situation is worse,” Andrus added in an email from June 2020 included in the court records. The emails were first reported by the New York Post.

META FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG MAY TESTIFY IN LANDMARK TRIAL TO EXAMINE IF SOCIAL MEDIA IS ADDICTIVE FOR KIDS

Andrus said that the large number of users on the Facebook and Instagram platforms give predators the ability to target children to an extent that wasn’t possible prior to the advent of social media.

“I just think, nowhere in the history of humanity could you have a secret conversation with 1000 people,” Andrus wrote. “I’m actually scared of the ramifications here.”

She also noted issues with age verification on the platform, writing in an email that it’s a “chicken and egg problem: our proactive detection and metrics use age-gating, so if the age prediction is wrong, we don’t find them. However, our investigators have given feedback that almost every time they encounter an age liar on IG (in a child safety context) the age prediction is incorrect (aligns with the age they falsely claim to be.)”

FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ALLOW PREDATORS TO ‘TRADE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY,’ ACCORDING TO LAWSUIT FILED BY NEW MEXICO

“The number discussed in this 2020 email exchange does not refer to individual victims or incidents of child exploitation,” a Meta spokesperson told FOX Business. “The measurement technology we used at the time used an overly wide and cautious set of criteria, and as a result counted many benign interactions. This number significantly reduced after we refined and improved our measurement technology.”

Meta’s spokesperson added, “Since 2020, we’ve introduced a range of new measures to help reduce potential grooming and inappropriate interactions with children – including preventing adults from starting private chats with teens they’re not connected to, and using improved behavioral signals to identify potentially suspicious actors and preventing them from finding and following teens.”

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The company said that it takes a “comprehensive approach to ensuring teens have age-appropriate experiences on Meta platforms. This includes, for example, using technology to estimate someone’s age based on their activity, allowing people to report accounts they think may be underage.” 

“If we think someone may be misrepresenting their age or they are trying to change their age in a way that will impact the protections we enable, providing the option to use facial age estimation technology from Yoti or providing an ID,” Meta added. “These steps help us provide teens with safer experiences online, like the automatic protections offered by Instagram Teen Accounts.”

The New Mexico case is just one of those facing Meta, which is also facing a case in California state court that begins Monday regarding whether Instagram harmed a woman’s mental health, fueling her depression and suicidal health. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify during the California trial, which the judge aims to conclude by the end of March.

The case was also brought against Alphabet’s Google, which is the parent company of YouTube.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda told FOX Business that the allegations against YouTube are “simply not true.” 

“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” he said.

Other social media platforms, including TikTok and Snap, were originally part of the suit, though they settled with the plaintiff before the trial.

Lawyers for the woman who brought the suit, a 20-year-old identified as K.G.M., aim to show that the social media companies were negligent in designing the apps and failed to warn the public about the risk. The jury may consider awarding her damages for pain and suffering and could also impose punitive damages.

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The companies plan to point to other factors in the young woman’s life as driving her mental health issues, while also outlining their work to protect young people on the platform and distancing themselves from users who upload harmful content.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Deputy PM Ekniti Nitithanprapas highlighted TikTok’s long-term investment plans in Thailand, valued at over 270 billion baht, focusing on digital infrastructure, SME support, and positioning Thailand as a regional content hub.

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Key Points

• Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas highlighted Thailand’s participation in the World Economic Forum 2026, enhancing investor confidence, particularly with TikTok’s long-term investment plans exceeding 270 billion baht.
• Discussions in Davos between Ekniti and TikTok executives focused on digital infrastructure investments, support for the digital and AI economy, and opportunities for Thai entrepreneurs on the platform.
• TikTok aims to position Thailand as a regional hub for content development and improve market access for small and medium-sized enterprises while also cooperating on consumer protection and financial literacy initiatives.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said Thailand’s participation in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos helped sustain investor confidence, with TikTok confirming plans for long-term investment in the country.

Ekniti said he and the Board of Investment’s secretary-general met TikTok executives in Davos to discuss the company’s operations and future direction in Thailand. The talks covered digital infrastructure investment, support for the digital and AI economy, and expanded opportunities for Thai entrepreneurs using the platform.

TikTok confirmed long-term investment plans in Thailand valued at more than 270 billion baht and outlined proposals to support small and medium-sized enterprises by improving market access and income generation. The company also discussed positioning Thailand as a regional base for content development and related digital services.

Operated by ByteDance, TikTok has a large global and ASEAN user base and established its Thai subsidiary in 2021 as a regional operating office under BOI promotion. It later received approval for major data hosting operations to support regional services. Discussions also covered cooperation on consumer protection, financial literacy, and online fraud prevention, as well as preparations linked to Thailand’s hosting of the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings this year.

Source : TikTok Confirms Long-Term Investment in Thailand

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Mumbai: The National Housing Bank (NHB) managing director, Sanjay Shukla, had urged large home financiers to reduce prime lending rates during a call with their decision-makers about a fortnight ago, executives aware of the discussions told ET. But the mortgage lenders have deferred lending rate cuts until their internal benchmarks, due for annual reviews, are reset in April.

“In the call with us, the NHB chairman put considerable pressure on the ecosystem to transmit lower rates to end customers, as they believe the benefit of reduced borrowing costs has not been passed on to existing borrowers,” said the chief executive of a large housing finance company (HFC). “The NHB’s view is that while HFCs are raising funds at significantly lower rates-from the market, banks and NHB refinance schemes-they continue to charge relatively higher rates to existing borrowers.”

HFCs collectively own about a fifth of India’s mortgage lending market, now dominated by mainstream banks.

Traditionally, HFCs maintain high prime lending rates (PLR) but offer steep discounts to customers. For instance, while LIC Housing Finance‘s home loan rates currently start at 7.15%, its PLR is around 17%. HFC lending rates typically factor in the cost of borrowing, risk premium, operating costs and profit margins.

NHB has flagged that despite a cumulative 125 basis point reduction in the central bank repo rate over the past year to 5.25% and NHB refinance rates near 7%, the sharp fall in funding costs has not been adequately transmitted to existing borrowers.

“Several HFCs have argued that there will be a more meaningful downward movement in lending rates once the MCLR reset happens in April,” said the CEO of another housing finance company.
That said, some lenders have begun responding to the NHB’s nudge. Aadhar Housing Finance cut its retail prime lending rate by 15 basis points to 17.50% from 17.65%, effective February 10, 2026. Aavas Financiers also announced a 15-basis-point reduction in its PLR to 17.80%, effective March 1, 2026.While the central bank became the primary regulator of HFCs in 2019, the NHB continues to play a significant role as a supervisory and developmental institution. It conducts on-site inspections of HFCs and serves as a key refinance provider, giving it considerable influence over the sector.

As of end-March 2025, outstanding loans and advances of HFCs stood at ₹9.59 lakh crore, marginally lower than ₹9.61 lakh crore a year earlier, central bank data showed.

The share of HFCs in total housing credit-across banks, HFCs and NBFCs-declined to 18.8% at end-March 2025, partly due to the conversion of two HFCs into NBFCs. Housing loans accounted for 73.8% of the total credit extended by HFCs at the end of March 2025.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose solidly after a shaky start on Monday, as technology ⁠stocks found their footing following last week’s AI-sparked selloff, while investors waited for key economic data that could shed light on the Federal Reserve‘s interest-rate path.

While the Dow notched its second closing record in a row with a small gain, the S&P 500 ultimately finished short of its closing record.

The S&P 500 technology sector finished up 1.6% to extend Friday’s gains after a steep selloff last week. The S&P 500 Software ‌Services index ended up ‌2.9% as it clawed back some losses for a second day after a bruising seven days of losses fueled by fears that AI could intensify competition.

One big gainer in software was Oracle, which added 9.6% after D.A. Davidson upgraded it ‌to a “buy” recommendation from “neutral.”

Along with the upgrade, Keith Lerner, chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services, said another support for technology stocks came from comments CNBC attributed to Sam Altman, the CEO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

Altman told employees that the startup’s artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, was back to exceeding 10% monthly growth, according to CNBC’s report which Reuters could not independently verify.
“You’ve a sharply oversold market where a little bit of good news can go a long way,” said Lerner, adding that “the rubber band was stretched too far for tech and software” in last ​week’s selloff.While the software index was still almost 13% below its trading levels just before the exodus that started in ​late January, the broader tech sector was less than 3% under its pre-selloff levels.

After surpassing 50,000 points for the first time on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial ‌Average rose 20.20 points, or ‍0.04%, to 50,135.87. The S&P 500 gained 32.52 points, or 0.47%, to 6,964.82 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 207.46 points, or 0.90%, to ‍23,238.67.

The Nasdaq finished 3% below its latest record closing high, reached in November, while the S&P 500 ‌was just out of reach of its last record close of 6978.60 reached on January 27.

The materials index, up 1.4%, showed the second biggest advance among the S&P 500’s 11 major industry indexes, as a rally in gold and silver boosted miners.

The consumer staples sector, which had benefited during the technology selloff, was tied with healthcare for the steepest sector declines of the day, with both falling 0.86%.

Healthcare’s biggest loser was Waters whose shares sank 13.9% after the lab equipment maker

forecast first-quarter profit below Wall Street estimates

. Investors also weighed weakness in a Becton Dickinson unit it acquired last year.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index gained 1.4%. Among its members, Nvidia shares added 2.5% providing the S&P 500’s biggest boost, but traders must wait until later this month for results from the AI chip leader.

Coming closer in the pipeline is the January ‍nonfarm payrolls report due on Wednesday, which was delayed by a partial government shutdown, and the closely watched January Consumer Price Index on Friday.

Markets are currently pricing in the year’s first interest-rate cut in June, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which could be when U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‍nominee for Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, ⁠takes over.

Among individual stock movers, Hims & Hers ⁠Health tumbled 16% for its seventh consecutive daily loss. Novo Nordisk sued the telehealth firm for patent infringement after the U.S. firm launched, then canceled, a $49 copy of the Danish drugmaker’s weight-loss pill Wegovy following backlash from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Workday shares slid 5% after the human resources software provider announced co-founder Aneel Bhusri will return as its CEO.

Kyndryl shares plunged 54.9% after the IT services provider delayed its quarterly filing and flagged material weakness in its financial reporting.

Kroger’s shares rallied 3.9% after the grocery giant named former Walmart executive Greg Foran as its chief executive.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.13-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 789 new highs and 99 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 2,887 stocks rose and 1,917 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.51-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 63 new 52-week highs and 20 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 165 new highs and 127 new lows.

Trading volume was relatively light on Monday with about 17.78 billion shares changing hands compared with the 20.66 billion moving average for the last 20 sessions.

Mumbai: Shares of gold jewellers were among the top gainers on Monday, extending the month-long rally, fuelled by the US-India trade deal, which boosted sentiment across the gems and jewellery space.

Kalyan Jewellers shot up 14.7%, leading the surge. Motisons Jewellers, Vaibhav Global, Goldiam International, Sky Gold and Diamonds, Thangamayil Jewellery and P N Gadgil Jewellers climbed 9-16%, while Titan Company gained 3%. The benchmark Nifty 50 rose 0.7%, and the Nifty Midcap 150 and Smallcap 250 indices advanced 1.6% and 2.6%, respectively.

“Monday’s run-up is largely a combination of strong results by Kalyan Jewellers and P N Gadgil, as well as tariff reduction on jewellery exports as part of the India-US bilateral trade deal,” said Gaurang Kakkad, head of research at Centrum Broking.

A joint statement issued on Friday said the US would cut tariffs on gems and diamonds exported from India, lowering them from 50% to 18%.

Harsh Thakkar, research analyst at Samco Securities, said investors expect the momentum seen in the October-December to continue into the fourth quarter, aided by wedding-season demand – a view echoed in the recent commentary from Kalyan Jewellers’ management.

Kalyan posted an 60% jump in consolidated net profit for the third quarter from July-September, while P N Gadgil posted a 115.5% rise in October– December profit. “We have seen strong thirdquarter numbers from Sky Gold and P N Gadgil, and we expect strong results from other key players such as Titan Company and Senco Gold. Investors may consider accumulating shares of leading companies in the segment on dips,” Thakkar said.

Kakkad said the third quarter saw strong momentum across jewellery retailers, supported by gold price inflation and robust wedding-related buying. In the October- –December period, international gold prices rose nearly 12% as per data from investing- .com. So far in 2026, gold is up over 16% in a volatile trading period. Kakkad added that the structural story remains intact, with organised jewellers benefiting from market-share gains from the unorganised sector, continued store additions and entry into newer categories, including lab-grown diamonds and lightweight jewellery. His top pick in the sector is Titan.

“Despite gold price volatility, January has remained healthy in terms of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) like walk-ins, footfalls and consumer traction,” said Kakkad. “We expect that some correction in gold prices will provide an opportunity to consumers who were on the fence, and therefore demand momentum should remain strong in the fourth quarter as well.”