Jury selection began on Aug. 12 in a federal trial over allegations that Meta Platforms designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children.
Twenty-nine state attorneys general are part of the suit against the social media platform.
The Oakland, California trial is expected to last nearly two months and will first hear allegations by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey that Meta’s design was created to keep young people hooked and mislead users about safety.
Additionally, the trial will cover claims by all 29 states that the company illegally collected children’s data in violation of federal law.
Meta spokespeople deny these claims, saying they are confident that the case will show the company’s commitment to supporting youth.
“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” a spokesperson for Meta told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”
Plaintiffs are the attorneys general of 29 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“Recent lawsuits misrepresent our commitment to creating safe, valuable experiences for young people,” Meta said at the time. “We stand by our record.”
The company asserts that clinicians and researchers have found that mental health is a “deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal.”
“Despite this complexity, plaintiffs’ lawyers have selectively cited Meta’s internal documents to construct a misleading narrative, suggesting our platforms have harmed teens and that Meta has prioritized growth over their well-being.”
In a June 29 filing for the case, Meta’s attorneys argued that the states couldn’t prove addiction to social media unless “social media addiction” is recognized as a diagnosable mental-health disorder.
That reasoning was rejected by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who said that Meta’s statements denying the platform’s addictive nature didn’t depend on the existence of a formal diagnosis.
Social media platforms, such as Meta and others, have consistently leaned on Section 230. Because the law was created 30 years ago—well before internet usage took its current form—lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have asked for a sunset to the statute.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were among those who sponsored a bipartisan bill to repeal Section 230.
Opening statements are slated to begin on Aug. 18, and the case is expected to feature testimony by Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
According to Meta, damages could be as much as $1.4 trillion, which is near the company’s current market valuation of $1.5 trillion. Plaintiffs have not made public how much they’re seeking in damages.
Attorneys are expected to ask the judge to issue an order that would force Meta to implement age restrictions and eliminate the infinite scroll feature.
California Attorney General Bob Bonta celebrated the court’s dismissal of Meta’s appeal challenging the lawsuit in an Aug. 10 statement, calling the company’s attempt to stop the trial an “effort to get out of taking accountability.”
“Meta designed a dangerous product for young users, knew it to be dangerous, and then lied to children, families, and the community about how dangerous it was,” Bonta went on. “We are ready to hold Meta accountable for its role in fueling the mental health crisis of American children.”
On Aug. 10, a federal appeals court permitted thousands of lawsuits to proceed against Meta and TikTok over allegations that their products are designed to addict young users.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit turned away an appeal by TikTok and Meta to reverse a lower court ruling forcing them to face approximately 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court. Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The panel held the companies’ appeal was premature.
In March of this year, a Los Angeles jury found Google and Meta liable for $6 million in damages.
Meta was ordered to pay 70 percent of the compensatory damages in the case in which a 20-year-old plaintiff asked a jury to hold the tech giants accountable for psychological harms that she suffered as a result of an addiction to their apps, YouTube and Instagram.
Snapchat and TikTok were also defendants in the original lawsuit, but settled before the trial began.
The European Commission’s investigation found features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalized recommendations incentivized users to spend more time on the apps, increasing the risk of unhealthy and addictive use.
