Meta threatens to pull its software from New Mexico if forced to make ‘technically impossible’ changes

Meta says it could be forced to pull Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from New Mexico if the attorney general does what he wants. The government wants a radical change that the company says is impossible.

After won a jury award of $375 million against Meta in a lawsuit that argued that the company misled users in the state about the security of its products, the Attorney General of New Mexico Raúl Torrez is asking the federal court to order a major change in the platforms. Between he asks with end-to-end encryption for children, age verification, and identification of 99 percent of new child-friendly content sent to its services.

“Importantly, many of the requests are so vague or vague that compliance with them would violate Meta’s right to know what would violate the law,” Meta says in a court filing. It calls several requests “technical or impossible” and says it will require New Mexico programs to comply. “Therefore, granting this strict relief will force Meta to remove Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from the state as the only means of tracking.”

Several examples of the AG’s proposed impossible task, according to Meta, are those that achieve 99 percent accuracy in identifying new CSAM and rejecting young accounts. Regardless of how the state is set up for CSAM detection, the company writes, “Meta cannot guarantee that the system met this standard, as calculations would require Meta to detect 100% of CSAM to use as a benchmark.” The need for detailed accuracy in detection “seems to be based on the false assumption that any system or any tool can eliminate any public service or website with billions of users of all abuse or all CSAM. CSAM is an Internet issue different from Meta platforms, and no service or website has been able to achieve zero CSAM, as many of the Government’s Meta witnesses admitted.

It also says that instead of Meta’s age estimation methods – which include asking users for their birthdays during registration, building security if users try to change their age, and using age-predicting models – with more complexities such as uploading IDs and taking pictures of people’s faces could be more accurate. That’s why, according to Meta, they can make them try to distort the system, or work differently in real world situations than in experiments. In addition, Meta believes it would be prohibited by federal children’s privacy laws from storing information that would place users under the age of 13 in the state.

Torrez says in his statement that Meta’s resistance to the proposed changes only shows his lack of understanding. “Meta’s refusal to follow laws that protect our children tells you everything you need to know about this company and the character of its leaders,” Torrez said. “We know that Meta has the power to change this. Over the years the company has rewritten its rules, reformulated its products, and even complied with the demands of dictators to protect the market. This is not about technology.

Meta says the latest if Youth Account has already addressed many of New Mexico’s concerns, and wants to make some minor changes to its age-verification system and provide state law enforcement training on online crimes against minors in the short term.

“By focusing on one platform, the government ignores many other programs that young people use, leaving parents without the support they deserve,” Meta spokesman Chris Sgro said in a statement.

Torrez warns that even if Meta “takes their ball and leaves the state,” they may find a few places in the US to go. In a call with reporters on Thursday, Torrez said more money for AG across the country are following suit against social media companies. “To me, it feels like a short-sighted and temporary attempt to distort and delay the impossible,” he says. “And it would be good for them, it would be good for the people in our community, and (also) communities across the country if they started doing real safety management.”