A court in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay a further $567 million (£445 million) into a state abatement fund, on top of a $375 million civil penalty imposed in March, after a judge ruled the company's platforms constitute a "public nuisance" to teenagers. Judge Bryan Biedscheid compared Meta's apps to polluting factories, saying the psychological harm and sexual exploitation experienced by children on the platforms spread beyond them "to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world." Meta has said it disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal.

The new funds will support youth internet safety training for teachers and health professionals, as well as community health centres, while the court has also ordered specific safety changes to Facebook and Instagram, though not WhatsApp. These include private-by-default accounts for under-18s, restrictions on adults messaging or being recommended to minors, hidden "like" counts, a 90-hour monthly usage cap across the two apps, notification blackouts overnight and during school hours, and daily safety information banners. The judge stopped short of ordering changes to Meta's algorithms. Meta had earlier warned it might withdraw its apps from New Mexico if the ruling went against it, a claim the state's attorney general dismissed as a PR stunt.