Meta vows to challenge major rulings, removing attorney ads recruiting plaintiffs

Meta is pushing back against two rulings that have awarded hundreds of millions to plaintiffs. The company has vowed to appeal the New Mexico and California rulings, and has already taken steps to oppose lawyers seeking to hire plaintiffs from the very social networks they want to fight.

In New Mexico, a judge found Meta liable for misleading customers about the security of its platforms. The New Mexico Department of Justice celebrated the victory, making the southwestern state the first in the country to achieve such a legal victory. A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $5,000 for each violation, including a total of $375 million in civil penalties.

The California case centered on a 20-year-old California woman, identified as KGM, who alleged that the sites fueled her childhood addiction and contributed to her depression and suicidal thoughts through their marriage-driven design. In that case, Meta was ordered to pay a total of $4.2 million.

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“We think we have strong grounds to file an appeal in a number of cases,” Ethan Davis, VP and Head of Global Litigation Strategy at Meta, told Fox Business. “We think these cases threaten to undermine important principles of freedom of speech. So we’re optimistic about our chances of an appeal.”

Davis told Fox Business that Meta did not believe the lawsuits should have been brought under Section 230, the section of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that protects platforms from being held liable for posted content. There have been debates about how Section 230 has been used on social media, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic where some see the scrutiny of posts as a reason to end protections for large technology companies.

“If you look at court decisions, they’ve seen many times that you can’t take over a platform based on the content on that platform or the publishing decisions of that platform,” Davis said. “These cases are about content that young people see on social media and fall squarely within what Section 230 is designed to do.”

Supporters of “KGM” stand with signs outside the Los Angeles Superior Court during a social media trial on whether the sites were intentionally created to be addictive to children in Los Angeles, Feb. 25, 2026. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP Via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Even as some lawyers argue that social media has caused harm, they have used those tools to recruit clients. Ads removed by Meta.

One ad that has been removed reads, “Anxiety. Depression. Withdrawal. Self-harm. These aren’t just teenage categories — they’re symptoms linked to social media addiction in kids. Platforms know this and continue to target kids anyway,” according to Axios. The outlet noted that almost all of the ads were running on Facebook and Instagram, with some appearing on Threads and Messenger.

“It does not make sense to allow these plaintiffs’ lawyers to use our platform to persuade the plaintiffs to sue us when the core of their complaint is that our platforms are dangerous,” said Davis.

Meta plans to challenge the court’s decisions regarding youth safety. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

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Meta has taken steps in the past to make its platforms safer for young users by creating youth accounts, which allow parents to monitor their children’s social media activity. Additionally, in February, Meta launched a new program that sends parents alerts if their teens repeatedly search for words related to suicide and self-harm.

As the Meta appeals approach, the lawsuits could become a platform to test the limits of Section 230 and how social media companies can be held financially accountable for the effects their platforms have on minority users.