{"id":769986,"date":"2026-05-03T07:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769986\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T07:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:52:51","slug":"metas-historic-loss-in-court-could-cost-a-lot-more-than-375-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769986\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta\u2019s historic loss in court could cost a lot more than $375 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez won a historic sum of $375 million<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Beginning Monday, attorneys for Meta and New Mexico will return to a Santa Fe courthouse for a three-week public nuisance trial, where they\u2019ll argue over the changes the AG wants the judge to order<\/a> 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).<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outset, our goal was to try and change the way the company\u2019s doing business,\u201d Torrez told The Verge on a recent visit to Washington, DC, to advocate for new kids safety legislation. \u201cI recognize that even at $375 million for a company this big and this profitable, it\u2019s not enough in and of itself to change the way they\u2019re doing business. In fact, there\u2019s probably some folks in that company who think of it as the cost of doing business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at $375 million for a company this big and this profitable, it\u2019s not enough in and of itself to change the way they\u2019re doing business\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s threatened to do<\/a>, 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\u2019re found liable.<\/p>\n

During the trial, New Mexico will argue Meta has become a public nuisance by creating a public health hazard in the state. The AG\u2019s 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\u2019s alleged harms. After Meta makes its defense, Judge Bryan Biedscheid will evaluate which proposals are relevant and feasible \u2014 a process that could take some time, compared to the speedy turnaround of the jury verdict in March.<\/p>\n

A sweeping win for New Mexico could energize Torrez and thousands of other plaintiffs<\/a> currently pursuing cases against tech companies. Conversely, a limited order could be a significant blow. The outcome won\u2019t directly impact other cases, but it will almost certainly color negotiations over potential settlements.<\/p>\n

Several of Torrez\u2019s 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 \u201cis a great way to make sure that nobody uses Facebook Messenger anymore and just moves their activity to other platforms that aren\u2019t touched by this lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mandate may do little to change the reality of certain parts of the business \u2014 Meta recently announced it was getting rid of end-to-end encrypted messaging<\/a> on Instagram that it said \u201cvery few people\u201d actually used.<\/p>\n

Peter Chapman, associate director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute, which works to connect policymakers and others with independent tech policy research, said there could be \u201csignificant tradeoffs\u201d to a prohibition on encryption, and other changes may be more effective. For example, evidence presented by the state<\/a> showed that Meta\u2019s 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. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity to intervene at that level and try to prevent more of these harmful interactions from taking place without having to tackle encryption,\u201d said Chapman.<\/p>\n

No single feature change is likely to solve the entire child and teen safety problem, said Chapman, which is why it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t caught? The same goes for the accuracy and reliability of any mandated age verification.<\/p>\n

Meta points to this potential issue in its argument against Torrez\u2019s proposed remedies. \u201cRegardless 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,\u201d the company wrote in a legal filing. Torrez\u2019s chief deputy, James Grayson, said on a press call that the court and an appointed independent monitor would have some discretion over tracking; the office hasn\u2019t yet identified who this monitor would be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demands that are being made in New Mexico are ill-informed and provide massive additional exposure for other kinds of exploitation\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta and other groups that oppose the AG\u2019s approach say the outcomes he\u2019s seeking are counterproductive. \u201cThe demands that are being made in New Mexico are ill-informed and provide massive additional exposure for other kinds of exploitation,\u201d said Maureen Flatley, president of Stop Child Predators, a group that advocates for more funding for enforcement of criminal laws against child predators, and has received funding from<\/a> Meta-backed trade group NetChoice. \u201cThis notion that the platforms have to be responsible for pushing all these people out would be like saying to the US Bankers Association, \u2018By the way, you are responsible for all the bank robberies from now on,\u2019 which is ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Mexico Attorney General\u2019s focus on a single platform is a misguided strategy that ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use daily,\u201d Meta spokesperson Chris Sgro said in a statement. \u201cThe state\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Torrez has taken aim at the broader tech industry, too. He recently visited Washington, DC, to advocate for new protections for kids online and an overhaul of Section 230, the law that protects tech platforms from being held liable for their users\u2019 posts. \u201cWhile we were able to prevail in our district court in Santa Fe, I still think the law as it currently exists creates a lot of ambiguity,\u201d he told The Verge on that visit. \u201cIf Section 230 were not something that these companies could hide behind, then it increases the chances that they\u2019re going to have to actually make their case to a jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Chapman said regulation through lawsuits isn\u2019t an \u201cuncommon sort of story\u201d in the US. \u201cWhether that\u2019s tobacco, opioids, e-cigarettes, there is precedent for legal action moving a broader policy conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/p>\n