New Mexico state prosecutors are seeking fundamental changes to Meta's social media apps and algorithms, aiming to curb the profit-driven design features that have created a public safety hazard for children. This second phase of a landmark trial, beginning Monday, seeks to impose new restrictions on Meta's platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, following a prior jury finding that the corporation knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed child sexual exploitation.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to impose changes designed to rein in addictive features, improve age verification, and prevent child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight. These demands target Meta's core mechanisms of user engagement, including redesigning algorithms so content recommendations no longer prioritize constant engagement. Specific features under scrutiny include infinite scroll, push notifications, and default settings that display tallies for likes and sharing, all of which contribute to the continuous extraction of user attention for monetization.
New Mexico also seeks to mandate that child accounts on Meta platforms be associated with a parent or guardian. Furthermore, prosecutors are requesting the appointment of a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time, aiming to establish ongoing oversight of Meta's practices. These proposals represent an attempt by the state to mitigate the social costs generated by Meta's business model, which relies on maximizing user interaction.
The current phase of the trial follows a previous jury verdict in March 2026, which ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta. That verdict found that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. This financial penalty, while substantial, represents a cost of doing business for a corporation of Meta's scale, rather than a fundamental restructuring of its profit-generating operations.
The Profit Motive's Toll
Meta has vowed to appeal the jury verdict, signaling its intent to resist state-imposed restrictions on its operational model. The corporation has also issued a warning that it could eliminate Instagram and Facebook service in New Mexico if forced to comply with what it terms "impractical mandates." This threat of capital flight underscores the corporation's prioritization of its profit model over compliance with public safety demands.
Meta executives have stated that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive use, asserting that many of the prosecutors' demands are redundant. The company plans to call technical experts as witnesses to argue that the demands are impractical, if not impossible, and would force it to disregard the realities of the internet. Meta further contends that its platforms are being singled out among hundreds of apps used by teens, potentially leaving children vulnerable on platforms with less robust protections.
Central to Meta's defense is the invocation of free speech protections, specifically Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, a 30-year-old provision that has historically shielded social media companies from liability for material posted on their platforms. This legal framework has served as a significant barrier to holding tech corporations accountable for the social harms generated by their operations.
State Limits and Capital's Resistance
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated that the jury verdict "punctured the aura of invincibility" protecting tech companies from liability under Section 230. He characterized the case as putting New Mexico in a unique position to try and change the paradigm of how this company does business, and how Big Tech generally is expected to do business going forward. However, these statements acknowledge the entrenched power of capital within the existing legal and economic system.
Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law, noted that "The fact that we're having a trial on nuisance is itself a remarkable outcome," adding that "That theory is not well accepted as applied to the internet, and that theory doesn't really fit the internet." Goldman also raised concerns about the legal viability of age verification mandates, stating that "In practice a court order saying that Facebook had to impose age authentication would have no Supreme Court textual support." He concluded, "The Supreme Court might bless it. We don't know," highlighting the precarious legal ground for state-level reforms against corporate power.
This case is the first to reach trial among lawsuits filed by more than 40 state attorneys general, all alleging that Meta contributes to a youth mental health crisis. The first phase of the trial included six weeks of testimony from teachers, psychiatric experts, state investigators, top Meta officials, and whistleblowers who left the company, providing insight into the internal workings and external impacts of the corporation's profit-driven strategies. A recording of Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's deposition was played for jurors two months ago, on March 4, 2026, in Santa Fe, N.M.