By Sheila Dang

(Reuters) – Snap on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a New Mexico lawsuit that alleged the tech company enabled child sexual exploitation on its messaging app Snapchat, arguing there were inaccuracies to the state’s investigation.

The lawsuit, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez in September, is among a series of efforts by U.S. lawmakers to hold tech companies accountable for harm to minors who use their services. In January, U.S. senators grilled the CEOs of Snap, Meta Platforms, TikTok, X and Discord, accusing the companies of failing to protect children from abuse and “sextortion,” in which predators coerce minors into sending explicit photos or videos.

As part of a months-long investigation, New Mexico set up a decoy account for a 14-year-old girl, which investigators said did not add any friends but quickly received suggestions from Snapchat to add users with explicit account names.

In a filing in the first judicial court of New Mexico, Snap said the allegations were “patently false” and that the decoy account proactively sent many friend requests to certain users, contrary to the state’s claims.

New Mexico’s lawsuit also accused Snap of failing to warn children and parents of the dangers of sextortion on Snapchat. The Santa Monica, California-based company responded that the claims were barred by the First Amendment because Snap cannot be compelled to speak.

“Not only would Snap be required to make subjective judgments about potential risks of harm and disclose them, but it would have to do so with virtually no guidance about how to avoid liability in the future,” Snap said in the filing.

The state’s lawsuit is also a clear violation of Section 230, a portion of a 1996 law that protects online platforms from civil liability over content posted by users and third parties, Snap said.

The company added it has doubled the size of its trust and safety team and tripled its law enforcement operations team since 2020.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Austin, Texas; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

A big fight over a small, endangered fish that lives in the Rio Grande has come to a resolution, as a federal judge in New Mexico OK’d a settlement Tuesday proposed by the parties.

U.S. District of New Mexico Magistrate Judge Gregory Fouratt approved an agreement between WildEarth Guardians, an environmental and conservation nonprofit based in Santa Fe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a middle Rio Grande irrigation district.

The deal ends a 2022 lawsuit brought by WildEarth Guardians alleging the federal government mismanaged the Rio Grande and promoted unsustainable water uses, which violated provisions of the Endangered Species Act to restore habitats for the silvery minnow and two other species.

Feds, irrigation district say keep your wheels off of the silvery minnow

The dual strains of climate change and human diversions for irrigation are contributing to the Rio Grande drying more frequently, especially the crucial stretch of river between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte, where silvery minnow live.

The 4-inch long minnow, is unlike most freshwater fish. Silvery minnow directly spawn into the water in the spring, and the fertilized eggs slip downstream, a method more common to marine fish. When the river was slower and shallower, the minnow was prolific along Rio Grande from Española to Gulf of Mexico. Federal and local irrigation projects straightened the river, making it deeper and faster, and built dams that prevented fish from moving freely in the river. Now, the short-lived fish is limited to one reach,which dries almost completely each year. After years of population decline, the fish was named an endangered species in 1994.

The minnow holds an important role as an indicator of the Rio Grande’s health, said Daniel Timmons, the wild rivers program director for Wild Earth Guardians.

“The Rio Grande through Albuquerque used to support sturgeon and catfish that were 200 pounds. And today, the river is barely able to support a 4-inch minnow,” he said. “If it’s not able to support a minnow, it’s not able to support the entire web of life.”

The settlement makes some immediate changes, such as outlining specific provisions of the the Middle Rio Grande Water Conservancy District to fallow 2,500-3,500 acres farmland for the next four years or offer imported Colorado River water to keep in the riverbed.

Other provisions, such as the agreement to start the process for new federal conservation measures – called a Biological Opinion – will take four years.

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be “driving the bus” to produce a new Biological Opinion; there will be more opportunities for public comment as part of the agreement.

That’s unusual, he said, adding that Biological Opinions are often made behind closed doors.

“I’m hopeful the agencies will be more transparent throughout the process and will be engaging the public to make sure it’s more of a participatory process than it has been in the past,” Timmons said.

The federal government also agreed to pay $41,000 for WildEarth Guardian’s legal fees.

Currently, federal wildlife officials are going to continue using conservation measures from the 2016 Biological Opinion in the interim, said Debra Hill, a supervisory biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Rio Grande Basin.

One of the goals is to make the 87 conservation measures from the 2016 opinion less vague and more focused, she said.

The settlement shows that government agencies will have to work together to address creative solutions as the Rio Grande is expected to shrink further from climate change, she said.

“We are really going to have to figure out how to work with what is limited, and so it’s going to take working together as much as we can,” Hill said.

Hill called the minnow a “canary in a coal mine,” for life on the river.

“If we’re starting to see that a fish doesn’t have what it needs to survive in the Middle Rio Grande, we need to, as a society, realize that water is the same water that we rely on,” Hill said.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn knows requiring cooling devices inside every housing unit in Albuquerque will require some upgrades. But she wants to make sure landlords have enough time to help their tenant beat the summer heat. 

“Everyone deserves to be safe and comfortable in their own homes,” said City Councilor Tammy Fieblekorn.

Fiebelkorn believes that means keeping the thermostat at a reasonable temperature all year round. 

“We have vulnerable populations, seniors, young people, children, people with medical problems. They just cannot afford to sit in 90 plus degree temperatures in their own homes,” said Fieblekorn. 

Fiebelkorn is sponsoring a new proposal to require all housing units in Albuquerque be equipped with a cooling device that can keep temperatures at or below 80 degrees.

“And I’ll point out that 80 degrees is still pretty warm, but that is just the baseline that everyone in our community should expect, no matter how much or how little they can afford to pay for rent,” Fiebelkorn said. 

According to National Weather Service data, the average summer temperatures in Albuquerque are nearly 3 degrees higher than in 1970.

After a record heat wave in 2023, Fieblekorn says it’s time government leaders step in to keep Burqueños cool.

“We’re looking at older, older buildings that were built under old building codes under old requirements when it wasn’t so hot before climate change started really impacting Albuquerque. We didn’t need this, but we do now,” said Fiebelkorn.

Fiebelkorn says it’s hard to know how many housing units do not currently have some type of cooling device.

“More than 43% of Albuquerque’s apartment buildings were constructed before 1980, and many of these units have not been retrofitted with central air conditioning,” said Alan Laseck with the Apartment Association of New Mexico. 

He suggests that the 80-degree threshold will essentially ban the use of swamp coolers, and A/C conversions typically range between $5,000 to $15,000 per unit.

 “We absolutely agree that cooling is very important in Albuquerque, but the language in this ordinance is too restrictive,” said Laseck. 

Fiebelkorn believes cooling is just something that can’t be negotiated.

“I’m sorry if there’s anyone that has that concern, but this is really just a baseline requirement for humans to be able to stay in a unit,” said Fieblekorn. 

Fiebelkorn’s proposal would change the city’s uniform building code, which Laseck says would also impact single-family homes.

Fiebelkorn’s proposal is still in the committee process, and likely won’t reach the full council for a vote until December.