DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NEWS RELEASE
District Judge Bryan Biedscheid today rejected Meta’s motion to postpone the bench trial in State of New Mexico v. Meta Platforms, Inc., clearing the way for Attorney General Raúl Torrez to present what would be the most comprehensive court-ordered child safety protections ever imposed on a social media company.
Today’s ruling is the latest in a string of courtroom defeats for Meta, which has tried to dismiss the case, claimed immunity under Section 230, and now sought to delay the final phase of proceedings. Each time, the court has said no.
“Meta has spent years dodging responsibility for the damage its platforms cause to children,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “They failed to get this case thrown out. They lost at trial. Now the court has told them they cannot run from what comes next. On May 4, we will seek the strongest child safety protections ever proposed against a social media company — and we will ask this court to order Meta to comply.”
The reason Meta wants to delay is not hard to find. Phase 2 begins May 4 and it is where the consequences become real. Judge Biedscheid will hear the State’s public nuisance claim and determine what Meta must actually do to fix the platforms the jury found liable. The State has put Meta on notice: it will seek court-ordered changes that go to the core of how Meta designs its products for children.
What the Proposed Injunction Would Require
The proposed order would fundamentally restructure how Meta operates for children. It would ban the addictive features the trial established Meta designed deliberately: infinite scroll, autoplay, engagement-optimizing recommendation algorithms, and push notifications during school and sleep hours. A hard monthly cap of 90 hours would limit platform access for all New Mexico minors. Like and share counts, which Meta’s own researchers linked to anxiety and compulsive use, would be hidden by default for users under 18.
On child safety, the order would require private-by-default accounts for all minors, block adults from messaging children they are not connected to, bar end-to-end encryption for users under 18, and impose a one-strike permanent ban for any account involved in exploitation. Meta would be held to a 99 percent detection rate for new child sexual abuse material. Every minor’s account would require an associated guardian account. Effective age verification would be mandatory for all New Mexico users.
A court-appointed Child Safety Monitor, funded entirely by Meta, would oversee compliance, investigate complaints, access internal data, and publish regular public reports. Independent researchers would have auditing rights over Meta’s recommendation systems, with results made public. The injunction would remain in force for a minimum of five years across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, regardless of any future changes in ownership or corporate structure.
A New Mexico jury already found Meta liable for 75,000 violations of state law and ordered $375 million in civil penalties, the maximum allowed. Meta has announced its intent to appeal that verdict.
Background
Attorney General Torrez filed suit against Meta in 2023 following an undercover investigation in which NMDOJ agents created accounts posing as minors and were immediately contacted with sexual solicitations and predatory messages. The six-week jury trial included testimony from former Meta employees, law enforcement officials, New Mexico educators, and industry experts, along with internal company documents showing Meta knew its platforms were designed to exploit children and that its algorithmic features were exposing them to dangerous content. The jury found Meta liable on all counts.
“Meta has spent millions of dollars and years of litigation trying to avoid this moment. It hasn’t worked. We’ll see them in court on May 4,” Attorney General Torrez said.