SAN FRANCISCO: Meta is kicking off a court battle with some of the highest stakes yet.
But it is far from the only litigation facing the social media giant and its competitors.
In a federal trial beginning Tuesday in Oakland, California, the Instagram and Facebook parent company is fighting claims that it has contributed to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that get children addicted.
It's one of many courtrooms around the country where Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube have been defending themselves against allegations their platforms have negatively impacted children's mental health or otherwise hurt them. The trials could lead to changes in how the platforms are designed and operated.
For Meta, which already lost two pivotal cases over harms to children and teens this year, the risks are high. The company reported a rare profit decline last month, in part due to USD 2.4 billion in legal expenses.
Meta said evidence at the upcoming trial will show its commitment to supporting young people. “We've listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said in a statement.
The trial set to begin Tuesday with opening arguments in California features four of the states as plaintiffs: California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.
They were among dozens of states that filed a lawsuit three years ago targeting Meta's design features and the subsequent harm to children on its platforms. The other 25 states are expected to have trials later.
The states are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total billions of dollars, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. If Meta loses the trial, the court would have wide discretion over the size of any financial penalty.
Meta said it disputes the allegations.
The state of New Mexico brought a case against Meta claiming the company knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
A jury sided with the state in March, finding there were thousands of violations, each counting separately toward a penalty of USD 375 million. That's less than one-fifth of what prosecutors were seeking.
In early August, the judge in the case ordered Meta to pay an additional USD 567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of the trial. The judge also outlined new safety measures he ordered as a part of the ruling, including a time limit of 90 hours per month for users under 18, AI chatbot restrictions, and mandatory warnings on the platforms.
Meta has said it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.
The Tennessee Attorney General's Office was a part of the multistate investigation into social media companies that resulted in the 2023 filing against Meta by dozens of states, but opted to file in its own local court.
Attorneys gave opening statements in that case in late July, and the trial is expected to last until early September, according to The Tennessean.
“Targeting kids with a harmful product and lying about its safety violates the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. Meta knows every last design decision that made Instagram addictive to kids and that means it knows exactly how to fix the problem,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed three years ago. “We're suing to make the company fix the problem.”
Earlier this year, a jury found Meta and YouTube liable in a landmark case that centered on social media addiction and claims the companies designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well-being.
The plaintiff, known by her initials KGM, testified at trial that she became addicted to social media as a child and that it exacerbated her mental health struggles. After more than 40 hours of deliberations, a majority of jurors agreed and awarded USD 6 million in total damages.
It was a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that was randomly selected as a bellwether trial, or a test case for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury, and thus could influence the outcome of similar lawsuits.
TikTok and Snapchat were named as defendants in the lawsuit, but settled before the trial began. Meta and YouTube have each appealed the verdict.
Hundreds of school districts in the US have filed lawsuits against the major social media companies seeking compensation for costs they say they incurred dealing with harms to children's mental health from social media addiction.
A lawsuit brought by a small, rural Kentucky school district was set to go to trial this summer in federal court in California, but defendants Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube each settled before the trial began.
The Kentucky case was also selected as a bellwether out of 1,200 similar cases. The plaintiffs' attorneys said in a statement that their “focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts who have filed cases.”
The Los Angeles trial was the first of its kind, but there are thousands of similar lawsuits filed against social media companies by individuals.
Many allege the platforms' design features addicted them to social media, which led to adverse mental health outcomes. But there are also other harms plaintiffs say stemmed from young people's use of social media.
Some lawsuits have been filed by families of children and young adults who died by suicide after problematic use of social media, and families whose kids died from accidental overdoses from drug purchases facilitated by social platforms.