Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta returns to a New Mexico courthouse today for the continuation of a high-stakes child safety case that could force the social media giant to pay billions of dollars and fundamentally restructure how its platforms operate in the state if it is declared a “public nuisance.”
CNBC reports that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is defending itself in the second phase of proceedings brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who alleges the company failed to protect children from sexual predators on its platforms and misled the public about potential harms associated with apps like Instagram and Facebook.
The trial represents a critical juncture for Meta, coming after the company already lost the first round in March when a New Mexico jury ruled that Meta willfully violated the state’s unfair practices act. That jury ordered the company to pay $375 million based on the number of offenses found.
The current phase, a three-week bench trial without a jury, will determine whether Meta’s actions constitute a public nuisance requiring substantial product modifications. According to Meta’s quarterly filing last week, the state’s attorney general’s office is seeking approximately $3.7 billion in abatement costs plus injunctive relief that would mandate extensive changes to how Meta provides services in New Mexico.
Legal experts have characterized this year’s social media trials as the industry’s “Big Tobacco moment,” drawing parallels to the 1990s when tobacco companies were forced to pay billions for misleading consumers about product safety. “That was not an instant change, but if one compares the power held by big tobacco companies today, and compares it to the 1980s or even 90s, I mean there’s no comparison,” said Nikolas Guggenberger, an assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center. “They really just don’t have that position anymore.”
The New Mexico case is one of several major trials this year involving social media companies and child safety concerns. In March, Meta and Google’s YouTube service lost a personal injury trial in Los Angeles involving a plaintiff who claimed she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child. Jury members found that the companies’ negligence was a substantial factor in causing severe mental health problems, ordering a total of $6 million in damages with Meta responsible for 70 percent of the penalties.
Attorney General Torrez is demanding sweeping changes to Meta’s platforms, including implementation of effective age-verification technologies, alterations to recommendation algorithms to protect child well-being, and other modifications that would fundamentally restructure Meta’s business operations in the state. During a press briefing last week, Torrez said the state is requesting an independent monitor to ensure compliance, stating, “we’ve known now that Meta can’t be trusted to regulate itself, to independently comply and correct its behavior.”
Meta has pushed back forcefully against these demands. A company spokesperson said in a statement that New Mexico’s requirements are “technically impractical, impossible for any company to meet and disregard the realities of the internet.” The spokesperson added, “While it is not in Meta’s interests to do so, if a workable solution to Attorney General Torrez’s demands is not reached, we may have no choice but to remove access to its platforms for users in New Mexico entirely.”
The company added in a statement to Breitbart News:
The New Mexico Attorney General’s focus on a single platform is a misguided strategy that ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use daily. Rather than providing comprehensive protections, the state’s proposed mandates infringe on parental rights and stifle free expression for all New Mexicans. Regardless, we remain committed to providing safe, age-appropriate experiences and have already launched many of the protections the state seeks, including 13 safety measures this past year.
The trial carries implications beyond New Mexico. Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap are involved in a major federal trial in the Northern District of California with similar claims that the companies misled consumers and built defective apps fostering unhealthy and addictive behaviors in teens and children. That case, involving hundreds of school districts, is scheduled to begin on June 15.
Adam Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, noted that plaintiff attorneys will closely monitor the New Mexico proceedings. “This case will not only determine whether or not there are these big remedies for the state of New Mexico, but it’ll be kind of like the first test case for a theory that all these school districts are relying on in federal court that have been filed around the nation, and they’re all consolidated into one,” Zimmerman said.
New Mexico has precedent for public nuisance cases. In 2022, the state pursued a similar case against Walgreens related to the opioid crisis in Santa Fe, ultimately reaching a $500 million settlement. James Grayson, the state’s deputy attorney general, said during last week’s briefing that the case “created or laid the groundwork for using public nuisance in this kind of space. What we’re really trying to do is show statewide harm and the real impact to New Mexicans with this cause of action.”
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.