Tech giant Meta has gone on trial in federal court in Oakland, California, accused of exposing minors to dangers on Instagram and Facebook.
A coalition of 29 state attorneys general is seeking nearly 193 billion dollars in penalties, alleging the company designed addictive features and illegally collected data from children under 13 without parental consent.
Demonstrators gathered outside the court as proceedings opened on Tuesday, holding signs displaying the names of young people who died by suicide after using social networks.
Allegations of user deception
California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill said Meta had conducted a campaign to deceive and mislead its users, lawmakers, teachers and parents. California is leading the lawsuit alongside three other key states in litigation that forms part of a broader legal push against social platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, two of the world's largest social networks. Facebook was founded in 2004, while Instagram was acquired by the company in 2012. Together, the platforms reach billions of active users globally, making youth safety on these services a central issue for regulators.
Defense lawyer Paul Schmidt rejected all claims of concealment, telling the court that Meta had recognized some individuals struggled to manage their social media use and had worked to design tools to help them. However, prosecutors described those safety measures as flimsy paper barriers, noting that only 0.2 percent of teenage users ever activated the take a break option.
Fox Business reported that Meta previously failed in a bid to have the case thrown out before trial. During the hearing, prosecutors presented internal company documents showing staff had written that certain platform features exploit weaknesses in human psychology. Schmidt responded that the document was produced by teams dedicated to ensuring Facebook caused no harm, arguing that their job was to identify potential issues and resolve them.
Controversy over cosmetic filters
The prosecution also highlighted Meta's handling of cosmetic surgery filters, which simulate plastic surgery procedures on users' faces. Prosecutors said Meta suspended the filters in 2019 but reinstated them later despite warning signs from safety experts.
Schmidt argued that Meta took ten months to evaluate the potential risks before deciding to prioritize freedom of expression due to a lack of solid data demonstrating harm. Reuters reported that the outcome of the trial could significantly alter how Facebook and Instagram operate across the United States.
2Witness testimonies and verdict timeline
Arturo Bejar, a former Meta engineer who later joined family advocacy groups, was called as the first witness. Bejar testified that Meta operated under an internal culture of moving fast and breaking boundaries, saying the primary goal was to get products into users' hands as quickly as possible, leaving safety considerations as a secondary priority.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is also expected to take the witness stand during the trial. CBS News described the proceedings as a landmark moment in American legal efforts to address social media's impact on children. An eight-person jury will issue an advisory verdict in late September or early October, with the final ruling resting with US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
