Meta Warns of New Mexico Service Shutdown

Meta has warned that it may shut down its social media services in New Mexico ahead of a bench trial next week, arguing that state prosecutors' demands for extensive changes to platforms like Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are unfeasible.

The threat appeared in a court filing unsealed Thursday, the second phase of a lawsuit in which a jury already awarded New Mexico $375 million in civil penalties. The jury found that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed information about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Prosecutors allege that Meta's services constitute a public nuisance and seek court orders for changes to child accounts. These include reining in addictive features such as infinite scroll and autoplay, achieving 99 percent accuracy in verifying that users are at least 13 years old, implementing default privacy settings to prevent exploitation, linking all child accounts to a parent or guardian, and appointing a court-supervised monitor to track safety improvements.

Meta stated in the filing that the age verification requirement, among others, would practically force the company to halt services for all 2.1 million New Mexico residents or...