Meta is threatening to revoke access to its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in New Mexico amid the state’s push for court-ordered changes to how the company operates them for children.
“Meta’s refusal to follow the laws that protect our kids tells you everything you need to know about this company,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said.
“Meta simply refuses to place the safety of children ahead of engagement, advertising revenue, and profit,” he added.
“Meta’s refusal to follow the laws that protect our kids tells you everything you need to know about this company and the character of its leaders,” Torrez added, according to Fortune.
Meta’s refusal to follow the laws that protect our kids tells you everything you need to know about this company… Meta simply refuses to place the safety of children ahead of engagement, advertising revenue, and profit.
Read the full article below. pic.twitter.com/JASAoPPcO7
— Raúl Torrez (@TorrezforNM) April 30, 2026
Fortune shared further info:
The confrontation this week is the latest chapter in a case that began with a fake teenage girl.
ADVERTISEMENTIn 2023, investigators from the New Mexico Department of Justice created a social media profile posing as a 13-year-old, and found the account was almost immediately flooded with images, messages, and targeted solicitations from adults seeking to exploit a child. The investigators said no algorithm flagged the contact and no safety system caught it.
The undercover operation became the foundation of a lawsuit accusing Meta of making false or misleading statements about platform safety, enabling child sexual exploitation through deliberate design choices, and intentionally engineering its apps to addict young users. Section 230, a federal statute that has long shielded platforms from liability for user-generated content, New Mexico prosecutors used a state consumer protection law to pursue charges against the company.
In March 2026, a Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for 75,000 violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act and ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties, the maximum allowed under state law. New Mexico became the first state in the nation to win at trial against a major technology company for endangering children.
Meta responded to Torrez’s statement ahead of the bench trial that begins May 4.
“Despite Attorney General Torrez’s claims, the State’s demands are technically impractical, impossible for any company to meet and disregard the realities of the internet,” the company said in a statement given to Fortune.
“In targeting a single platform, the State ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use, leaving parents without the comprehensive support they actually deserve,” the statement continued.
“While it is not in Meta’s interests to do so, if a workable solution to Attorney General Torrez’s demands is not reached, we may have no choice but to remove access to its platforms for users in New Mexico entirely,” it added.
“When given a choice between protecting children or protecting profits, #Meta made its position clear. So have we,” Torrez said.
When given a choice between protecting children or protecting profits,#Meta made its position clear.
So have we. https://t.co/RTCjkWeIfS Via: @fortunemag #nmpol— Raúl Torrez (@TorrezforNM) May 1, 2026
More from the Associated Press:
Prosecutors are asking the court to order a series of changes to child accounts on social media aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
Meta executives have emphasized that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive social media use. The company says its being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use.
In a court filing unsealed Thursday, Meta said it was unfeasible for the company to meet a proposed requirement for 99% accuracy in verifying that child users are at least 13 years old, among other demands.
“As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,” Meta said in the filing.
Such a shutdown across a population of 2.1 million residents in New Mexico could silence personal communication on Meta’s immensely popular platforms, which also include Facebook and WhatsApp, and also impact their use for commercial advertising.
By withdrawing from New Mexico, Meta would satisfy any concerns about harm to children, but the message could appear intentionally hostile and might lead to unintended consequences, said Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.
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