Social media giant Meta will face a high-risk federal trial this week. The states of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey have accused Meta of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to make children and teenagers more susceptible to addiction.
The trial is set to begin on Wednesday, August 12, at the federal court in Oakland, California. Jury selection is expected to start on that day, with opening statements scheduled for August 18. The trial is anticipated to last about six weeks, with a verdict expected to be reached in early October.
Apart from seeking to restrict how Instagram and Facebook provide services to minors, the plaintiffs are also seeking penalties of up to $14 trillion. This amount is based on estimates of the number of young users affected in the four states and the penalties set by relevant state laws, approaching Meta’s market capitalization of over $1.5 trillion. Meta has criticized the figure as lacking factual and legal basis.
Ahead of this trial, Meta has already faced significant adverse rulings in two related cases, amounting to about $946 million in total.
In March of this year, a jury in Los Angeles ruled that Meta, along with YouTube, was responsible for a teenager’s social media addiction, resulting in a total compensation of $6 million, with Meta bearing 70% (about $4.2 million).
In the same month, a jury in New Mexico found Meta in violation of consumer protection laws, ruling it pay $375 million for misleading consumers about the safety of young users on Facebook and Instagram. On August 6, a judge ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million for adolescent mental health therapy and prevention.
The four states are accusing Meta of intentionally designing various features to keep minors engaged on the platforms, including “infinite scrolling,” excessive notifications, and displaying “like counts.”
This legal strategy focuses on the design of the applications themselves, rather than the content posted by users, aiming to circumvent the broad immunity protections enjoyed by U.S. online platforms for third-party content.
In addition to the charges brought by the four states under their respective consumer protection laws, this federal trial in Oakland will also address another set of charges brought by 29 states under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the key witnesses planned to be summoned by the prosecution. The jury in this case will serve in an advisory capacity only; if Meta loses, the penalty will be determined by federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Rogers has presided over significant lawsuits in the past, including those between Apple and Epic Games, as well as Elon Musk and OpenAI.
Parents claiming their children have been harmed by social media may be present in court as spectators, while the public can listen to the trial proceedings via live audio streaming on YouTube.
In response to the allegations, Meta issued a statement last Thursday, stating, “We are confident in our record of protecting the online safety of young people and will continue to defend against distorted accusations.” Meta plans to argue that mental health is a common industry-wide issue and will use freedom of speech protections as part of its defense against accusations from certain states. In light of the previous adverse rulings, Meta has already filed or plans to file appeals.
This lawsuit is part of a wave of lawsuits targeting social media companies across the United States. TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube under Google, similarly face various lawsuits brought by thousands of families, school districts, and prosecutors nationwide.
In May of this year, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube reached a $27 million settlement with a school district in Kentucky to avoid a trial that could have set a precedent for around 1,200 similar lawsuits.
The origin of this case dates back to the end of 2021 when former Meta employee Frances Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal research documents, known as the “Facebook Files,” showing that Meta internally assessed the potential harm Instagram could cause to some teen girls, but downplayed the impact externally.
These disclosures led to investigations by dozens of states, and about 30 state attorneys general filed lawsuits two years later, eventually evolving into the large-scale legal action seen today.