A trial began in a federal court in Oakland, California, in one of the largest lawsuits brought against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, over allegations that it harmed the mental health of children and teenagers. Both sides presented their opening arguments before the court, presided over by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
The plaintiff states say Meta’s business model relies on keeping users on its platforms and collecting their data, and that the company designed features targeting children and teenagers and encouraging them to return repeatedly and use the applications for longer periods. California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill said that screen-time tools do not provide genuine protection but, according to the state’s allegation, are intended to improve the company’s image and reassure parents.
Allegations Concerning Platform Design
The allegations include features such as recommendation algorithms that stimulate dopamine, Like buttons that may encourage social comparison, repeated notifications, and visual filters associated with body-image disorder, as well as an “infinite scroll” design that makes leaving the application more difficult.
The states allege that internal research at Meta showed links between platform use and problems such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and disrupted lifestyles among young people, and that the company denied these risks or issued misleading reports about them. They also accuse it of collecting personal data from children under 13 without obtaining parental consent, allegedly violating rules protecting children’s online privacy.
Meta’s Defense
The company’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, rejected the allegations and said Meta has a record of sharing information about the potential harms of social media with the public. He presented jurors with documents about young people’s use of the platforms, noting that 20% of participants in one survey said Instagram made them feel worse, and that company employees worked to find ways to improve how this group felt.
Schmidt also asked jurors to keep an open mind and not reach a final judgment before the end of the case. He said the states must prove that Meta knew features targeting children existed and did not remove them. He added that the company has always asked Facebook users, and later Instagram users, to enter their ages and allowed people to report users below the permitted age.
What Could Change in Practice?
The case represents a legal test of the extent to which social media platforms are responsible for the consequences of designing features that encourage repeated use, rather than only for the content posted on them. If the court finds Meta liable, the measures could include financial penalties and an order requiring the company to change how Facebook and Instagram operate, potentially affecting recommendation mechanisms, notifications, and age-verification tools.
Twenty-nine states filed the lawsuit in October 2023. The hearings at this stage address the laws of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, along with claims based on federal laws in the other states. The “design and addiction” allegations related to the laws of the other 25 states will be considered in later hearings.
The trial is expected to continue for weeks, with Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, current and former company officials, and psychology experts potentially giving testimony. The jury’s role will be advisory, while Judge Rogers will make the final decision on liability and any penalties. Meta says that losing could expose it to fines of up to $1.4 trillion, an amount close to its market value, according to the company’s estimates.