OAKLAND, Calif. — The stage is set for opening arguments on Tuesday as a landmark legal battle begins for Meta Platforms in a federal court in California.
Prosecutors representing California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey aim to secure substantial financial penalties and implement operational changes at Facebook and Instagram. This lawsuit is part of a broader legal offensive, as 29 states took action against the tech giant in 2023, targeting issues of child safety and privacy. While these four states enter the courtroom now, the remaining 25 will follow. Meta is also grappling with several state-level lawsuits.
The case accuses Meta of fueling a youth mental health crisis through deliberate product features that encourage addictive behavior among young users. Further, it contends that Meta routinely gathers data on children below 13 years old without obtaining parental consent, violating federal privacy laws.
“We are embarking on what stands as the largest consumer protection lawsuit in U.S. history this week. We will demonstrate to the jury that Meta hid the known impacts of its platforms on young people for the sake of profit,” stated Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, emphasizing the stakes of the trial.
Meta, however, expresses confidence in its legal defense, stating it believes in the strength of its case.
“We are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms and the amount of effort that we’ve put into developing protections over the years, even before these cases were ever filed, and continuing to the present day. We look forward to showing the judge and the jury those facts in court,” the company said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and former employees testifying. Gonzalez Rogers, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, has overseen a bevy of complex, high-profile cases involving Big Tech. These include Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its founders as well as Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple over its app store.
The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media companies including Google’s YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over arguments that their platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data and are deliberately designed to addict them.
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