New Mexico v. Meta: What the Court Ordered

State of New Mexico ex rel. Raúl Torrez, Attorney General v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. D-101-CV-2023-02838 (N.M. First Judicial District Court, Santa Fe County). Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Judgment, Order, and Decree entered August 6, 2026, by Chief District Judge Bryan Biedscheid.

THE BOTTOM LINE: After a two-phase trial, the court found Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance in New Mexico and ordered a $567 million abatement fund plus a five-year package of mandatory platform changes. The fund is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties a jury awarded in Phase 1, reflecting 75,000 violations of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act at the maximum $5,000 penalty each.

AGE ASSURANCE

• Keep improving age-assurance models, including AI-enhanced heuristics, and make a good-faith effort to build an under-13 prediction model within two years.
• Proactively request proof of age from suspected under-13 New Mexico accounts and mark for deletion any that do not verify within 30 days.
• Review the friend networks of deleted under-13 accounts for additional underage users.
• Build a reporting portal for schools and child-safety organizations to flag suspected underage accounts.

CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

• Maintain Teen Accounts for New Mexico users under 18: private by default on Instagram, limited friends by default on Facebook.
• No search visibility except by exact username, no recommendation to adults ever, no messaging from unconnected adults, and no changes to default settings without parent or guardian consent.
• Block under-18 users from sending or receiving nudity flagged as violative, and keep blurring suspected nudity.
• Enforce a one-strike policy for adults engaged in child sexual exploitation, disabling all related accounts and blocking re-registration.
• Add forward-facing reporting mechanisms for child sexual exploitation and unwanted sexual advances, with human review within 48 hours.

ADDICTION AND PROBLEMATIC USE

• No push notifications to under-18 accounts from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily, or from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on academic-year weekdays, with carve-outs for connected-user messages and urgent security alerts.
• Hide like counts by default for under-18 accounts, overridable only with parent or guardian permission.
• Cap under-18 usage at 90 hours per month cumulatively across Facebook and Instagram.

DISCLOSURE AND EDUCATION

• Build a banner screen linking to the Transparency Center, Parents Guide, Safety Center, Help Center, and Teen Accounts page, shown monthly to adults and weekly to under-18 users.
• Fund, design, and implement a statewide educational campaign plus ready-made school materials. The banner and screens are subject to State review and approval.
• Maintain the Meta Content Library, Content Library API, and Center for Open Science Partnership, with research eligibility decided by university oversight boards rather than Meta.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Prepare and fund semiannual New Mexico trainings for state and federal law enforcement on internet crimes against children.
• Designate and maintain a standing point of contact for the Internet Crimes Against Children task.
• Within 30 days, consult NCMEC on improving CyberTip reports, and respond to reasonable requests within 45 days or explain in writing why not.
• Ensure human review of every CyberTip report of new CSAM involving New Mexico users before referral.
• Report a baseline measurement of new-CSAM detection rates within 30 days and annually thereafter, and improve detection by at least 5 percent by the end of the abatement period.