OPINION: Why NM is holding Meta accountable as Congress stalls

Every day, 100,000 children using Facebook and Instagram fall prey to online sexual harassment. This staggering number, which we uncovered in a lawsuit filed against Meta, should alarm New Mexico parents not only because of how frequently children using Meta’s platforms are exposed to harm, but also because that estimate comes from Meta itself.

This week marks one year since the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bipartisan bill that would finally give families the tools they need to protect their children online. For tech giants like Meta — and its platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — KOSA would have brought meaningful accountability and change.

But Meta’s executives prevented KOSA from becoming law. Last quarter alone, they spent more on lobbying than any other tech company, pouring $5.8 million into these efforts. It’s no surprise why KOSA is now stalled.

Here in New Mexico, we can’t wait for Washington to hold social media companies accountable. That’s why the New Mexico Department of Justice is leading a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Meta and its subsidiaries for their failure to implement basic child safety policies to keep kids safe online and in real life.

We filed this lawsuit after state investigators gathered evidence that Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms steer children to explicit content and promote underage accounts to predatory adult users.

Internal documents and whistleblower testimony obtained from our lawsuit reveal that Meta’s own employees repeatedly warned that the company’s design choices gave predators license to target minors in plain sight. But instead of acting, Meta has refused to implement basic protections like effective age verification and its platforms promote harmful content. Our investigation confirmed that on Instagram, users searching for banned accounts with child sexual abuse material were shown similar profiles or even alternative search terms to bypass enforcement.

These failures aren’t accidental. We allege in our lawsuit they are the result of deliberate business decisions to prioritize engagement and ad revenue over children’s safety. Meta executives were presented with straightforward solutions: defaulting minors’ accounts to private, limiting addictive features and restricting the reach of inappropriate content. But time and again, these proposals were delayed, watered down, or ignored — until, of course, a public relations crisis broke out.

Just in the past year, New Mexico law enforcement has arrested dozens of “Metaphiles,” who use Meta’s apps to target children in our state. Our investigators are working around the clock to protect kids, and Meta is only making their job harder. The company’s decision to expand end-to-end encryption across its platforms means Meta will no longer detect messages from online groomers or refer those predators to the police.

Imagine all the victims and families who could have avoided unimaginable trauma if Meta acted responsibly.

New Mexico is going above and beyond to protect kids from online harm, but we need Congress to act, or companies like Meta will continue to launch new technologies without adequate safeguards. Meta’s AI chat bots are now engaging in inappropriate conversations with minors, and Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly approved the removal of guardrails designed to prevent such abuse.

If passed, KOSA would empower state attorneys general to hold big tech accountable, give parents tools to report harmful content and allow families to shield their children from addictive algorithms. I’ve joined attorneys general from both parties in urging Congress to pass KOSA without delay. It is one of the most urgent, immediate and bipartisan steps we can take to protect our kids.

No company, no matter how big or profitable, should be above the law or evade accountability for putting children in harm’s way. New Mexico’s families deserve better and the Department of Justice will continue to fight for them. It’s time for Congress, and Meta, to do the same.