In a pivotal legal showdown, a U.S. federal court was presented with accusatory arguments on Wednesday, asserting that Meta consciously crafted Facebook and Instagram to ensnare and exploit young users’ attention spans.
This lawsuit, reminiscent of the infamous “big tobacco moment,” sees a coalition of U.S. states demanding $200 billion in damages from Meta. The allegation: using psychologically manipulative technology to addict children, drawing parallels with the strategies employed by the tobacco industry.
California prosecutor Megan O’Neill laid out the accusations during opening statements, arguing that Meta “manipulated how kids’ brains function.” She described the tech giant’s business model as one focussed on engaging users intensely, retaining them consistently, collecting their data, and subsequently “hiding the truth from the public.”
Representing Meta, attorney Paul Schmidt conceded that some users have indeed suffered negative impacts from the platforms. However, he contended that the company has actively developed tools aimed at mitigating these effects and offering support.
The company, prior to the trial, staunchly refuted all claims. Meta asserted it has engaged collaboratively with parents, industry experts, and law enforcement agencies to integrate child safety measures into their platforms.
Mothers rally
This is not the first case seeking to hold tech companies — including Meta — accountable for these types of issues, but it could become one of the most consequential if it leads to sweeping changes on the platforms.
Meta founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg is among the star witnesses expected to testify, along with Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
Activists, including mothers of children they say were driven to suicide by their social media usage, rallied outside court.
One mother, Lori Schott, called out Zuckerberg and Mosseri, saying they “built one of those most powerful and richest companies in the world… But power does not excuse harm.”
First of many?
This is the first federal trial in what is expected to be a tidal wave of lawsuits also targeting TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as families, educators and state governments charge them with harming the mental health of young people.
Meta, which has more than three billion users worldwide, is the sole defendant in this case.
In addition to financial penalties, the states are demanding changes to Meta’s apps to protect young users, including limits to screen time.
Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — are representing a coalition of 29 states that first sued Meta in 2023.
The charges are three-fold: that Meta lied to the public about how dangerous its apps are for minors; designed some features specifically to get them hooked and stay online, including screen time-limiting ones that are easy to get around; and gathered data on children under age 13 without parental consent, in violation of federal law.
The trial is expected to last six weeks, with a verdict expected by October.
For Meta, “the huge issue here is reputational harm” and being forced to make major changes to its social media platforms, Vincent Joralemon, a director at Berkeley’s Life Sciences Law and Policy Center, told the Agence-France Presse news agency.
Experts see parallels with a three-decade-old settlement between dozens of US states and tobacco companies.
“It really feels like tobacco in the 1990s,” Joralemon said.
While cases about social media harms revolve around the intersection of technology and addiction, the case against Meta focuses on its business practices, similar to when US regulators sued tobacco companies, Joralemon said.
Dozens of US states sued four major tobacco companies for downplaying the harmful health impacts of their products, and won a 1998 landmark settlement that included financial penalties and changes to product marketing.
Those tobacco companies have paid over $176 billion since, according to data from the National Association of Attorneys General.