Meta threatens to pull Facebook and Instagram from New Mexico over child safety demands

Key facts

• A jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, awarded $375 million in civil penalties against Meta for knowingly harming children's mental health and concealing child sexual exploitation.
• Meta warns it may shut down Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in New Mexico, a state of 2.1 million residents, rather than comply with proposed child safety measures.
• New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez seeks injunctive relief including 99% accurate age verification, permanent bans for predatory adults, and independent oversight.
• Meta argues that achieving 99% age verification accuracy is technically unfeasible and would require building separate apps for New Mexico.
• The second phase of the trial, a bench trial, is set to begin next week in Santa Fe.
• New Mexico's case is the first to reach trial among over 40 state attorneys general suing Meta over youth mental health.
• A Los Angeles jury last month found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services.

A legal ultimatum in Santa Fe

Meta is raising the prospect of shutting down its social media services in New Mexico rather than comply with sweeping child safety measures demanded by state prosecutors. The threat emerged in a court filing unsealed Thursday, as the company prepares for a bench trial next week that will determine what reforms it must implement following a landmark jury verdict. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is seeking a court order requiring Meta to make fundamental changes to platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Among the demands is a requirement that the company verify with 99% accuracy that child users are at least 13 years old. Meta argues that such a threshold is technically impossible to meet. 'As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,' the company said in its filing.

The $375 million verdict and its aftermath

The current legal battle is the second phase of a case that already resulted in a $375 million civil penalty. A jury in Santa Fe determined that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Prosecutors are now asking the court to order a series of changes to child accounts: reining in addictive features, improving age verification, and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight. Meta has signaled it will appeal the $375 million judgment. 'This would be a truly historic moment for a district court to order those kinds of measures and to have Meta create a new standard for child safety, not only in our state, but I think create a blueprint for how that company would be expected to operate,' Torrez said.

Meta's argument: singled out and impossible demands

Meta executives have emphasized that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive social media use. The company says it is being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use. In its court filing, Meta's legal team argued that New Mexico's 'requests for relief are so broad and so burdensome, that if implemented it might force Meta to withdraw its apps entirely from the State of New Mexico as an alternative way of complying with the injunction.' The company added that it 'does not make economic or engineering sense for Meta to build separate apps just for New Mexico residents.' A Meta spokesperson stated: 'Despite Attorney General Torrez’s claims, the State’s demands are technically impractical, impossible for any company to meet and disregard the realities of the internet. In targeting a single platform, the State ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use, leaving parents without the comprehensive support they actually deserve.'

A high-stakes gamble for both sides

Withdrawing from New Mexico would silence personal communication on Meta's immensely popular platforms for 2.1 million residents and impact commercial advertising. Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law, noted that such a move could appear intentionally hostile and might lead to unintended consequences. Goldman pointed to a 2023 incident in Canada, where authorities accused Facebook of putting profits over safety after the platform blocked local news content during record-setting wildfires and evacuations. Facebook was responding to a newly enacted law requiring tech giants to pay publishers for linking to their content. Torrez dismissed Meta's threat as a 'stalling tactic,' expressing doubt that the company would follow through. 'I highly doubt that they’re gonna be willing and able to turn the lights off for their product all over the country,' he said. 'But, you know, this is the kind of behavior that has become normalized, frankly, under Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership.'

A national precedent in the making

New Mexico's case against Meta is the first to reach trial among more than 40 state attorneys general who have filed suit against the company on claims it contributes to a mental health crisis among young people. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court. A Los Angeles jury last month found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services, validating longstanding concerns about the dangers of social media. The New Mexico bench trial, set to begin Monday, will decide whether the state can force Meta to adopt measures that could become a template for regulation nationwide. Torrez is seeking strict age verification, permanent bans for predatory adults, independent oversight of Meta's platforms, and safer recommendation algorithms. The outcome could reshape how social media companies operate not just in New Mexico, but across the country.

The bottom line

• Meta is threatening to withdraw Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from New Mexico rather than comply with child safety measures including 99% accurate age verification.
• A jury already awarded $375 million in penalties against Meta for harming children's mental health and concealing child exploitation.
• The upcoming bench trial will decide whether Meta must implement sweeping reforms or face a shutdown in the state.
• New Mexico's case is the first of over 40 state lawsuits against Meta to reach trial, potentially setting a national precedent.
• Attorney General Torrez views Meta's shutdown threat as a stalling tactic, while Meta argues the demands are technically impossible.
• A separate Los Angeles jury recently found Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children, adding to the legal pressure on social media companies.