Meta, the technology group founded by Mark Zuckerberg, faces this week the most significant trial in its history, which seeks to determine the impact on children’s health of its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s executives will appear this Tuesday before a federal court in Oakland (California), where the company has been sued by several states demanding compensation exceeding $1.4 trillion (about €1.2 trillion) and calling for changes in the way Facebook and Instagram operate.
The compensation claimed by more than twenty states is practically similar to the entire company’s market value. To illustrate the importance of the trial, if the group were convicted, it would be practically doomed to bankruptcy. However, legal experts believe the judges would reduce the amount of compensation to avoid the disappearance of one of the world’s largest companies.
The company faces lawsuits worldwide for its aggressive behavior with its social platforms, lack of content moderation, misinformation, strategies to hook users, and data collection without consent.
In this first trial, four states accuse the technology group, one of the seven largest companies in the world, of contributing to the mental health crisis among children and young people by knowingly and deliberately designing features on its platforms that generate addiction in children. The plaintiffs also blame the social media giant for collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent, which constitutes a violation of a federal law.
Four states initiate the major trial
“Meta has used powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage, and ultimately trap young people and teenagers. Their motivation is profit and they seek to maximize their financial gains,” states the lawsuit reported by AP.
State prosecutors argue that the company lied to the public about the risks of the platforms to teenagers’ mental health.
The trial starting this Tuesday takes place after half of the states in the country filed a lawsuit against Meta’s alleged abuses, one of the most controversial tech companies for its practices to foster addiction, lack of content control, and permissiveness with hateful and divisive messages.
State prosecutors from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, controlled by Democrats, will lead this first trial that will mark the future of the social network. Trials to resolve the lawsuits from other states are expected to take place in the coming months.
Meta has denied the accusations and is trying to have the presented evidence dismissed. It has presented arguments to try to demonstrate its commitment to young people’s mental health. “We have listened to parents, collaborated with experts and law enforcement, and conducted thorough research to understand the most important issues,” the company said in a statement.
Conviction in New Mexico
The trial takes place just 10 days after one of the biggest judicial setbacks suffered by the tech company. A state court in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $567 million to a youth mental health fund and forced it to modify the operation of its social networks, considering them responsible for harming minors’ well-being and failing to protect them from sexual exploitation on their platforms.
The crusade against social media abuses is being fought in the United States from the states, because the federal government under Donald Trump is a strong supporter of tech companies. It often praises their executives and frequently hosts them in private meetings at the White House. As proof, major tech executives like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk (Tesla), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and Tim Cook (Apple), among others, were honored guests at Trump’s inauguration ceremony for his second term.
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Addiction and lack of protection
The case starting this week in California is the latest in a wave of lawsuits against big tech companies for market abuse, competition issues, and especially for the lack of control over social media platforms in designing their systems, which are contributing to a mental health epidemic among young people and teenagers.
Meta already lost two cases for harm to children and teenagers this year. The latest occurred earlier this year in Los Angeles, when a state court decided to award $6 million in damages to a young woman who claimed she became hooked and addicted to Meta and YouTube social networks as a child.
The company reported an unusual drop in its earnings last quarter, despite a surge in revenue. Analysts focused on the increase in legal expenses due to pending lawsuits amounting to $2.4 billion. Between April and June, Meta earned $15.848 billion, 14% less despite billing $60.801 billion, 28% more.
“In our lawsuit, we allege, and are prepared to prove at trial, that they are deceiving consumers about the dangers of Facebook and Instagram,” said New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport in an interview with NPR. “They are putting profits ahead of the health of a generation of young people.”
Judges in California, where the company is headquartered, have decided to consolidate the states’ complaints into a kind of class action in an unusual process that sets a precedent known as multidistrict litigation. It groups thousands of lawsuits to avoid duplication of processes such as evidence gathering and to establish a single criterion.
State prosecutors argue that Meta designed and implemented features to capture users’ attention and prolong their time on social networks. To do this, officials claim, the company incorporated the Like button, infinite scroll, and recommendation algorithms that “encourage compulsive use,” according to the lawsuit reported by NPR.
Profitable practices
Prosecutors recall that the company obtained hefty profits from this strategy, since the company’s main source of income comes from advertising.
State officials also accuse Meta of prioritizing interaction with young users over their safety. They point out that Facebook and Instagram contained systems that favored addiction and disrupted education and sleep for the youngest users. Additionally, they included visual filters that encouraged eating disorders and body dysmorphia. All this, the lawsuit reminds, despite Meta claiming it strives to prioritize young users’ well-being.
“The attorneys general present no evidence that anyone in their states has been deceived, claim that harmless features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and try to penalize Meta for problems affecting the entire sector, such as age verification,” a Meta spokesperson told NPR. “We stand by our record of creating strong protections for teens and look forward to presenting our case in court,” they added.
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