Overview
- The bench trial, which opened Monday in Santa Fe, will decide whether Meta’s platform design is a public nuisance and what remedies to impose after a March jury fined the company $375 million under the state’s unfair-practices law.
- Attorney General Raúl Torrez seeks 28 changes to Facebook and Instagram that target child safety, including blocking users under 13, deleting underage accounts, one‑strike bans for adults who exploit children, stronger age checks, algorithm changes, and an independent monitor.
- Meta says many of the state’s demands are technically impractical and warns it may cut off its services in New Mexico if ordered to adopt unworkable rules, while adding that it launched 13 new safety measures last year.
- Meta disclosed that New Mexico is seeking about $3.7 billion in abatement alongside injunctive relief, and the court plans to hear testimony over roughly three weeks.
- Legal experts say the case could shape how courts treat platform design liability, with comparisons to past tobacco litigation and a related federal school‑district trial scheduled to start June 15 in California.