Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, may block users in one US state from accessing its services due to an ongoing legal case about protecting children online.
According to The Guardian, the company has threatened to remove Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from New Mexico after a court held them responsible for not protecting children.
In March, a jury ruled that Meta must pay $375 million in fines because the company was found to have deceived users regarding safety measures and allowed harmful activities, such as the exploitation of children, to occur.
In December 2023, the New Mexico attorney general brought a case that resulted in the first jury trial to find the tech company responsible for content shared on its platforms.
Meta says it may pull apps from New Mexico
The lawsuit is moving into its final stage, starting May 4th, when a judge will determine what Meta needs to change. Meta claims the proposed changes from the state are impractical and could lead to them shutting down services altogether.
According to the document, many of the demands are either impossible to achieve with current technology or aren’t practical. Meeting them would essentially require Meta to create completely new apps just for New Mexico users. As a result, if forced to comply with these difficult requests, Meta might have no choice but to remove Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from the state altogether.
The document suggests that complying with new regulations might require creating different versions of the app for teenagers, along with expensive and complicated system updates. But New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez criticized this as simply a public relations move.
Torrez explained that Meta certainly could implement these improvements. The issue isn’t a lack of technical skill, but rather Meta’s unwillingness to prioritize children’s safety over maximizing user engagement, advertising income, and overall profits.
The second phase of the case will run as a bench trial expected to last around three weeks.
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2026-05-01 22:48