Meta just threatened to shut down Facebook and Instagram in New Mexico rather than comply with the state's child safety lawsuit.
Let that sit for a minute. A tech company would rather stop serving an entire state than implement basic protections for minors.
The threat came during legal proceedings related to a lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accuses Meta of enabling child exploitation, failing to moderate harmful content targeting minors, and deliberately designing features to addict young users.
Meta's response, according to state officials, was essentially: "Make us comply and we'll just leave."
This is a negotiating tactic, obviously. Meta isn't actually going to shut down service to 2.1 million people. The company is trying to pressure the state into backing down by threatening economic and social disruption. If Facebook and Instagram went dark in New Mexico, small businesses would lose advertising channels, families would lose communication tools, and constituents would blame the Attorney General.
It's corporate hostage-taking.
But here's the thing: call the bluff. Seriously. New Mexico should dare Meta to follow through.
Because if a company would rather abandon millions of users than implement child safety features, that tells you everything about their priorities. And if those platforms are so harmful that the company prefers shutdown to regulation, maybe the state is better off without them.
The lawsuit centers on documented failures in Meta's content moderation. Internal documents show the company knew its platforms were being used for child exploitation, that its recommendation algorithms were connecting predators with victims, and that design features were deliberately engineered to maximize teen engagement regardless of mental health impacts.
None of this is surprising to anyone who's paid attention to over the past decade. But 's lawsuit is one of the most aggressive attempts yet to hold the company legally accountable.
