New Mexico tests a new way to rein in Meta

The milestone ruling by a New Mexico court that found Meta contributed to a youth mental health crisis could serve as a blueprint for other state and individual legal challenges seeking to hold tech companies liable for harms stemming from their platforms. The ruling marks the first time a court has ordered a broad package of user-experience changes to a major social media platform based on a final judgment about harms to users. It requires Meta to “eliminate push notifications” for minors during nighttime and school hours and to hide “like counts” by default. It also directs Meta to cap their combined Facebook and Instagram use at 90 hours per month. And it tags the company with an additional $567 million penalty to mitigate impacts on schools, hospitals and police, following a $375 million in civil fines jurors already levied.