MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to New Mexico, where a federal judge will consider whether Meta will have to change how it operates in the state. The state's attorney general sued the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in 2023. The suit accused Meta of designing addictive social media products that also fail to protect children from sexual exploitation. For more about this case and its implications, we've called reporter Danielle Prokop. She's with Source New Mexico. That's an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom. Danielle, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
DANIELLE PROKOP: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: So we covered the first phase of this case in March, where a jury ordered Meta to pay the state $375 million for failing to protect young users from child predators. What is this part about?
PROKOP: Absolutely. This is a bench trial, where a judge, rather than a jury, is going to determine our outcome. And that's used when the case has a complex or technical issue, such as the case with New Mexico v. Meta. They're all returning to Santa Fe Courthouse later today for this three-week public nuisance trial, where New Mexico is going to argue over the changes that the AG wants to order to make Meta change how Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp operate in New Mexico.
MARTIN: Can you just give us a sense of what - the arguments that you expect on each side?
PROKOP: Absolutely. So that's going to include the New Mexico Department of Justice's changes, which is going to ask for age verification for New Mexico users, prohibiting this end-to-end encryption for people under 18 in messages, capping the use of the apps to 90 hours per month for younger users and limiting engagement-boosting features like infinite scroll and autoplay in addition to requiring Meta to detect 99% of all new child sexual abuse material. Now, Meta has argued that they've worked to make the platform safer, that New Mexico has no authority to implement these requested changes and it could violate free speech on the platforms.
MARTIN: So what is at stake for Meta, and also for New Mexico, for that matter?
PROKOP: Yeah. Well, last week, Meta told us that if the judge sides with the New Mexico Department of Justice, they think that it's technically impractical, impossible for any company to meet, and said that they may pull out fully from New Mexico. On the other hand, the New Mexico Department of Justice has said this could change how, fundamentally, Meta operates for children and that - said that other states could be watching this case to see if their own concerns to Meta - if their own concerns with the platform are changed in courts.
MARTIN: Oh, interesting. I was going to ask about that, if there are implications for other states who also have these kinds of complaints. Meta, as you just noted, has threatened to stop operating in New Mexico if it loses. Like, what would that look like?
PROKOP: They've said they can pull the plug entirely - right? - that there would no longer be a Facebook, an Instagram and a WhatsApp in New Mexico. You know, the attorney general has called that a PR stunt last week and has said that instead that the company can be working to make these apps safer for children instead of pulling out entirely.
MARTIN: And before I let you go, is the public weighing in at all? Are they being hurt in any way? And if so, how?
PROKOP: You know, we didn't really see any public demonstrations outside of the trial on this case, and so we're not really anticipating that at this time.
MARTIN: OK. That's Danielle Prokop with Source New Mexico. That's an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom. Danielle, thank you.
PROKOP: Thank you.
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