{"id":2325,"date":"2026-04-06T20:03:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ibvl.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/new-mexicos-meta-ruling-and-encryption\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:03:52","slug":"new-mexicos-meta-ruling-and-encryption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ibvl.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/new-mexicos-meta-ruling-and-encryption\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico\u2019s Meta Ruling and Encryption"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Mike Masnick points out <\/a> that the recent New Mexico court ruling against Meta has some bad implications for end-to-end encryption, and security in general:<\/p>\n

\n

If the \u201cdesign choices create liability\u201d framework seems worrying in the abstract, the New Mexico case provides a concrete example of where it leads in practice.<\/p>\n

One of the key pieces of evidence the New Mexico attorney general used against Meta was the company\u2019s 2023 decision to add end-to-end encryption to Facebook Messenger. The argument went like this: predators used Messenger to groom minors and exchange child sexual abuse material. By encrypting those messages, Meta made it harder for law enforcement to access evidence of those crimes. Therefore, the encryption was a design choice that enabled harm.<\/p>\n

The state is now seeking court-mandated changes including \u201cprotecting minors from encrypted communications that shield bad actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the end result of the New Mexico ruling might be that Meta is ordered to make everyone\u2019s communications less secure. That should be terrifying to everyone. Even those cheering on the verdict.<\/p>\n

End-to-end encryption protects billions of people from surveillance, data breaches, authoritarian governments, stalkers, and domestic abusers. It\u2019s one of the most important privacy and security tools ordinary people have. Every major security expert and civil liberties organization in the world has argued for stronger encryption, not weaker.<\/p>\n

But under the \u201cdesign liability\u201d theory, implementing encryption becomes evidence of negligence, because a small number of bad actors also use encrypted communications. The logic applies to literally every communication tool ever invented. Predators also use the postal service, telephones, and in-person conversation. The encryption itself<\/i> harms no one. Like infinite scroll and autoplay, it is inert without the choices of bad actors \u00ad- choices made by people,<\/i> not by the platform\u2019s design.<\/p>\n

The incentive this creates goes far beyond encryption, and it\u2019s bad. If any product improvement that protects the majority of users can be held against you because a tiny fraction of bad actors exploit it, companies will simply stop making those improvements. Why add encryption if it becomes Exhibit A in a future lawsuit? Why implement any privacy-protective feature if a plaintiff\u2019s lawyer will characterize it as \u201cshielding bad actors\u201d?<\/p>\n

And it gets worse. Some of the most damaging evidence in both trials came from internal company documents where employees raised concerns about safety risks and discussed tradeoffs. These were played up in the media (and the courtroom) as \u201csmoking guns.\u201d But that means no company is going to allow anyone to raise concerns ever again. That\u2019s very, very bad.<\/p>\n

In a sane legal environment, you want<\/i> companies to have these internal debates. You want engineers and safety teams to flag potential risks, wrestle with difficult tradeoffs, and document their reasoning. But when those good-faith deliberations become plaintiff\u2019s exhibits presented to a jury as proof that \u201cthey knew and did it anyway,\u201d the rational corporate response is to stop putting anything in writing. Stop doing risk assessments. Stop asking hard questions internally.<\/p>\n

The lesson every general counsel in Silicon Valley is learning right now: ignorance is safer than inquiry. That makes everyone less safe, not more.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The essay has a lot more: about Section 230, about competition in this space, about the myopic nature of the ruling. Go read it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Masnick points out that the recent New Mexico court ruling against Meta has some bad implications for end-to-end encryption, and security in general: If the \u201cdesign choices create liability\u201d framework seems worrying in the abstract, the New Mexico case provides a concrete example of where it leads in practice. One of the key pieces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[955,510,90,291,345,458,53],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-2325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-courts","category-cybersecurity","category-encryption","category-meta","category-social-media","category-uncategorized","tag-cybersecurity"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Mexico\u2019s Meta Ruling and Encryption - Imperative Business Ventures Limited<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.ibvl.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/new-mexicos-meta-ruling-and-encryption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Mexico\u2019s Meta Ruling and Encryption - Imperative Business Ventures Limited\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mike Masnick points out that the recent New Mexico court ruling against Meta has some bad implications for end-to-end encryption, and security in general: If the \u201cdesign choices create liability\u201d framework seems worrying in the abstract, the New Mexico case provides a concrete example of where it leads in practice. 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