New Mexico seeks $3.7 billion, changes to Meta platforms in youth harm trial

By Diana Novak Jones

May 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. state of New Mexico on Monday asked a judge to declare Meta Platforms a public nuisance, order the company to pay $3.7 billion and overhaul its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms to protect young users.

“Across the country, children are begging for help,” David Ackerman, an attorney for New Mexico, told the judge in opening statements. “You will hear testimony that confirms there is a mental health crisis, and that it is fueled and caused by social media. We need to fix it.”

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, accusing Meta of designing its platforms to addict young users and failing to protect children from sexual exploitation.

The trial, which Reuters is monitoring on Courtroom View Network, marks the second phase of New Mexico’s lawsuit against the social media company. A jury in March found Meta violated the state’s consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for young users and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages. Meta has said it will appeal that verdict.

Meta has said it has taken extensive measures to ensure its young users are safe.

A PUBLIC NUISANCE TEST

During this phase, the judge will decide whether the company’s platforms have created a “public nuisance” under New Mexico law — a finding that would allow him to order wide-ranging remedies aimed at curbing alleged harms to young users.

The case is being closely watched as states, municipalities and school districts across the country ​pursue similar claims seeking to force changes at the industry level.

Public nuisance claims traditionally have targeted conduct that endangers public health or safety, such as blocking roads or polluting waterways, but state governments have increasingly invoked them in litigation involving tobacco, opioids, climate change and vaping.

Alex Parkinson, an attorney for Meta, told the judge in opening statements that the state has not alleged the company interfered with a so-called “public right,” like access to air or water. Instead, New Mexico’s case is just based on injuries suffered by individual users, he said.

If social media is a public nuisance, “then so is alcohol because of drunk driving, so are cell phones because of distracted driving, so are supermarkets that sell junk food,” Parkinson said.

A POTENTIAL ‘OVERREACH’

Torrez’s office is seeking billions of dollars to abate what it calls harms to youth mental health caused by Meta as well as an order requiring the company to make substantial changes to its platforms for New Mexico users.

Those changes include age verification, redesigning its algorithm to promote quality content for minors, and ending autoplay and infinite scroll for minors, according to court filings.

Before opening statements, Judge Bryan Biedscheid said that after reviewing pretrial filings he was worried some of the changes sought could amount to “overreach.”

“I am a judge, I am not a legislator, I am not a regulator,” Biedscheid said, adding he wanted to ensure any proven harms were addressed without turning the court into a “one-person legislature.”

Parkinson said Meta is willing to make changes, but that New Mexico is seeking a regulatory shift more appropriate for a legislature. The changes, if ordered, would make it “untenable” for Meta to continue operating in the state, he said.

“I am telling you that as an officer of the court who understands my client’s position. This is not a PR stunt, it is not a threat,” Parkinson said.

Ackerman countered that Meta has only offered to do what it is already doing on child safety. “Meta doesn’t impose or implement safety procedures until it is forced to do so,” he said.

New Mexico’s case is among hundreds of lawsuits accusing Meta and other social media companies of designing products to be addictive to young people, contributing to a nationwide mental health crisis.

Meta warned investors last week that legal and regulatory blowback in the European Union and the U.S. “could significantly impact our business and financial results.”

(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, David Gregorio, Bill Berkrot and Sanjeev Miglani)