Meta Platforms, also known as Meta, is set to stand trial in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday, July 20. The state has accused the company’s social media platform, Instagram, of being designed to intentionally create addiction, leading to a mental health crisis among teenagers.
The state alleges that the company knowingly designed its product to cause addiction among teenagers and misled the public about its safety measures, thereby violating the state’s consumer protection laws.
In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for Meta stated that the company has implemented control measures to protect the hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Tennessee who use social media daily. The spokesperson mentioned, “We have spent a decade building age-appropriate default settings for teenagers and providing simple tools for parents to set appropriate boundaries for their families.”
The company argues that the damages claimed by the state are based on content posted by users on Instagram, and that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act protects the company from third-party content liability.
Jury selection is set to begin on Monday, marking the start of the first phase of the trial. The jury will determine whether Meta violated Tennessee laws. If the jury finds Meta in violation of state laws, the case will proceed to a second phase where the judge will weigh potential fines and actions that may be taken against Instagram. The state’s consumer protection laws allow for fines of up to $1,000 per violation.
The trial is expected to last seven weeks and will overlap with at least two other trials against the company in California courts, as Meta faces thousands of similar lawsuits in state and federal courts.
This trial in Tennessee marks the second lawsuit brought against Meta by a state government.
Earlier this year, a lawsuit against the company in New Mexico concluded with a jury ruling that Meta had misled consumers about the safety of its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages to the state.
A separate non-jury trial is ongoing in New Mexico regarding allegations of public nuisance caused by the company, with the court currently considering whether to order Meta to make changes and provide additional compensation to remedy the harm caused.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan coalition of 32 states, led by New York Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Meta, alleging that the company failed to disclose internal research showing that Instagram could be harmful to teenagers.
The joint lawsuit accuses Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, of being repeatedly warned by some employees about research findings indicating negative impacts of the platform on teenagers, but he refused to fund efforts aimed at minimizing these harms and instead made misleading public statements regarding harmful content on the platform.
Skrmetti seeks economic penalties against Instagram and requests the court to order modifications to certain features on the platform believed to be detrimental to the mental health of teenagers.
Nearly all states in the U.S. have filed lawsuits against Meta over alleged harm to children caused by its platforms. California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey have filed state-level lawsuits. A state-level lawsuit against Meta is scheduled to be heard on August 18 in a federal court in California.
Additionally, Meta and other social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits brought by individuals and school districts in state and federal courts.
A trial against Meta and Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., is set to commence on July 27. This case stems from a lawsuit filed by a 15-year-old boy known as R.K.C. in Florida, who accuses these social media platforms of damaging his mental health. The companies have generally denied the allegations in the lawsuit and argue that they have been striving to protect children and should not be held responsible for claims based on user-generated content.
(Reference: Reuters)