Meta is facing a landmark trial in Oakland, California, where California and 28 other US states accuse the company of designing social-media products that are addictive for children and concealing information about the alleged risks.
Meta has denied the allegations. The states are asking the court to require changes to the design of Meta’s products so they are safer for children, making the case a significant test of how the US regulates major technology companies.
What the states allege
In her opening argument, a prosecutor described Meta’s alleged strategy with four words: “hooks” users, “holds” them on its platforms, “harvests” their data and “hides” the truth from the public. She argued that the model worked especially well for children.
A whistleblower who worked extensively with Mark Zuckerberg also accused Meta’s chief executive of misleading the public about his commitment to child safety. Zuckerberg and the chief executive of Instagram are expected to face questioning during the trial.
Related coverage: Why Meta’s US trial could reshape child safety on social media.
Why the case matters beyond Meta
Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, said courts can force changes more quickly than legislation by ordering companies to comply or stop doing business in a state. Her organisation represents individual plaintiffs suing Meta and other social-media companies in thousands of California cases and was involved in Meta’s first loss in a social-media addiction trial, in Los Angeles, in March.
The case is being watched as a possible route to changing how Meta’s platforms operate. The states are explicitly seeking product-design changes, although the outcome of the trial has not been decided.
Datacenter backlash adds pressure on the industry
The trial comes as US opposition to large artificial-intelligence datacenters grows. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro introduced restrictions for large datacenters, while Texas governor Greg Abbott said the industry had “dug its own grave”. A Gallup poll released three months earlier found that more than 70% of Americans opposed datacenter construction in their cities.
More context: What the Meta social media addiction trial could change.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said he understood why people did not want datacenters in their backyards, comparing that reaction with his own reluctance to live next to a nuclear power plant. Other technology figures, including Y Combinator chief executive Garry Tan and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, criticised the public debate over datacenter projects.
Also read: How a landmark court case proved Meta and Google built addictive social media platforms.
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