Opening statements in New Mexico's Meta lawsuit: state prosecutors argue that Meta misrepresented the safety of its platforms, while Meta's attorney pushes back
Meta has failed to disclose what it knows about the harmful effect of its platforms on children in violation …
Associated PressMorgan Lee
Context & Ripple Effects
New Mexico’s case builds on allegations first aired in 2023 that Facebook and Instagram inadequately protected minors. Its evidentiary backdrop includes a reported 2021 Meta presentation on minors’ exposure to sexually abusive content, making the dispute as much about what Meta knew and communicated as about individual moderation failures.
The opening arguments began a trial that later produced a jury finding that Meta violated state child-safety laws and civil damages. That progression makes the initial fight over safety representations consequential for the remedies New Mexico would pursue.
First-order effects
The trial places Meta’s public safety claims and its internal knowledge of harms to children under direct adversarial scrutiny; prosecutors must substantiate alleged omissions, while Meta must rebut both the facts and the characterization of its disclosures.
New Mexico gains a forum to seek accountability under state law, while Meta faces immediate litigation risk tied to how its platforms protect younger users.
Second-order effects
A finding that platform-safety representations were misleading would strengthen pressure on Meta to demonstrate that product safeguards, reporting, and disclosures align with what it knows internally.
The case gives other state enforcers a concrete litigation model: pair alleged child-safety failures with claims about misleading consumer-facing assurances rather than treating moderation as a purely discretionary product choice.
Third-order effects
If this approach is sustained, child-safety enforcement could increasingly test whether large platforms’ governance claims are legally verifiable, shifting the issue from voluntary trust-and-safety commitments toward enforceable consumer-protection obligations.
The later push for app overhauls and public-nuisance relief shows that these cases can evolve beyond damages into disputes over court-supervised product changes, though the scope of such remedies remains contested.
The trend: State consumer-protection cases are becoming a vehicle for challenging whether platforms’ child-safety promises match their internal evidence and product practices.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez regularly touts his experience prosecuting internet crimes against children - but he led an ethically compromised investigation into Meta that knowingly put real children at risk.
As the youth safety case against Meta in New Mexico begins, you might wonder what the company has been doing while it's faced intense regulatory scrutiny over the safety of its social networks. One answer? Recruiting more teens to Instagram. More in the link below
Opening statements got started this morning in the State of New Mexico's trial against Meta. @TrevorKOB4 was in the courtroom and will explain what's going on in tonight's newscasts. [video]
I really don't know what Meta is thinking attacking one state AG of ~42 highly bipartisan state AGs suing Meta for child harms. The thread has one retweet (from another person on Meta's “Strategic Response” team). Meanwhile, the actual harm allegations in NYT, NBC, Reuters, BBC. …
Another media appearance, another failure by NMAG Torrez to detail the ethical compromises in his Meta investigation. Didn't mention that investigators: *showed images of real kids to potential predators *chose not to report child sexual abuse material @MajorCBS @TakeoutPodcast
Epstein - Not ideal subject line for Meta. Meta is showering $ on Axios to positively promote its Teen Accounts in DC on same day jury trials kick off in both L.A. and Santa Fe for harming children and bipartisan state AGs file the relief they seek for similar allegations. [image…
wow. Meta's lead comms attack dog (has spun thru $6B+ in settlements) now going after New Mexico AG on eve of TWO DIFFERENT CHILD HARM trials plus another one in coming months brought by nearly every other state AG and school district. Zuckerberg and team are nuts. /1 [image]
Here is a link to an ABC report on New Mexico trial. My opinion it's nuts as their Comms tweets will prob get eyeballs in the courts and with state AG offices. Plus, they have other long-running pending cases w/ AGs (and FTC) for data harms, antitrust. /2 https://abcnews.go.com/.…
Here is a CNN report for a similar trial also starting today in Los Angeles Superior brought by plaintiffs across California. So it's not like any of this is happening in a vacuum. Going directly at a State AG seems risky and desperate. /3 https://www.cnn.com/...
this is a thread I did back when state AG suit was filed and unsealed on thxgiving eve. Meta plays a lot of PR war games it seems so likely well planned. But these state AGs are the front line for a lot of parents who want to hold them accountable. /4 https://x.com/...
“This case is as easy as ABC. Addicting, brains, children. They didn't just build apps, they built traps. They didn't want users, they wanted addicts.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/t...