Is Meta a Public Nuisance Company? The Court Will Decide

It is a closely watched case testing whether social media platforms can be legally classified as public nuisances, potentially forcing sweeping product overhauls, imposing up to $3.7 billion in penalties and setting a precedent for similar lawsuits across the United States that seek to hold tech companies accountable for alleged harm to children

Meta Platforms returned to court in New Mexico on Monday in a high-stakes case that will test whether its social media platforms can be legally classified as a public nuisance, a designation that could force sweeping changes to its products and expose the company to billions of dollars in penalties.

The proceedings in Santa Fe mark the second phase of a trial brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accuses the company of failing to protect children from sexual predators and misleading users about harms linked to its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

A jury in March found that Meta had willfully violated the state’s unfair practices law and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages tied to the number of offenses. The current phase, a bench trial without a jury expected to run about three weeks, will determine whether the company’s conduct amounts to a public nuisance under state law.

Such a finding could trigger sweeping remedies. Meta disclosed in a recent quarterly filing that the state is seeking “approximately $3.7 billion in abatement costs as well as injunctive relief, which includes requests for extensive changes to the manner in which we provide our services in New Mexico.”

The case is one of several in the United States this year targeting social media companies over alleged harms to children, with legal experts drawing parallels to litigation that curbed the influence of tobacco companies decades ago.

“That was not an instant change, but if one compares the power held by big tobacco companies today, and compares it to the 1980s or even 90s, I mean there’s no comparison,” said Nikolas Guggenberger, an assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center. “They really just don’t have that position anymore.”

In New Mexico, Torrez is pushing for structural changes to Meta’s products, including stricter age verification, modifications to recommendation algorithms and other measures that could fundamentally alter how the company operates in the state. He has also called for the appointment of an independent monitor, arguing that “we’ve known now that Meta can’t be trusted to regulate itself, to independently comply and correct its behavior.”

Meta has pushed back, saying the proposals are unrealistic. A company spokesperson said the state’s demands are “technically impractical, impossible for any company to meet and disregard the realities of the internet.”

“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,” the spokesperson said.

The New Mexico case follows a separate trial in Los Angeles in March in which Meta and Alphabet’s YouTube were found liable in a personal injury lawsuit involving a plaintiff who said she became addicted to social media as a child. The companies were ordered to pay $6 million in damages, with Meta responsible for 70%.

Legal analysts say the New Mexico proceedings could have wider implications. The case is seen as a potential test of whether public nuisance law, traditionally applied to physical harms such as pollution or unsafe products, can be extended to digital platforms.

“This case will not only determine whether or not there are these big remedies for the state of New Mexico, but it’ll be kind of like the first test case for a theory that all these school districts are relying on in federal court that have been filed around the nation, and they’re all consolidated into one,” said Adam Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

A related federal case involving Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap is due to begin on June 15 in California, where hundreds of school districts have brought similar claims alleging that social media companies designed addictive products that harm young users.

New Mexico officials point to past public nuisance cases to support their approach. The state reached a $500 million settlement with Walgreens in 2022 over its role in the opioid crisis, an outcome that officials say helped establish a legal framework for pursuing broader societal harms.

“That created or laid the groundwork for using public nuisance in this kind of space,” said James Grayson, the state’s deputy attorney general. “What we’re really trying to do is show statewide harm and the real impact to New Mexicans with this cause of action.”

Meta has called the lawsuit “a misguided strategy that ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use daily,” while maintaining it has introduced multiple safety features in recent years.

“Regardless, we remain committed to providing safe, age-appropriate experiences and have already launched many of the protections the state seeks, including 13 safety measures this past year,” a spokesperson said.

At the core of the dispute is whether social media companies can continue to rely on legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields platforms from liability over user-generated content, or whether courts will accept arguments that the design of these platforms constitutes a defective product.

Guggenberger said plaintiffs face the challenge of proving broader societal harm beyond individual users, particularly in a digital context where public nuisance claims are still largely untested.

If courts increasingly side with plaintiffs, tech companies could ultimately seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a landmark decision on the limits of platform liability.

For now, the New Mexico trial stands as one of the most consequential tests yet of how far regulators can go in holding social media companies accountable for the impact of their products on young users.

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