Meta trial begins in California over alleged harm to children

Meta intentionally hooked and exploited children, a US federal court heard Tuesday as a landmark trial seeking to hold Meta accountable for the alleged harm its social media platforms cause children began in California.

Four US states, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, argue the company misled the public about the safety of Instagram and Facebook and deliberately made the apps addictive for minors.

Lawyers for the states also allege Meta is violating privacy laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents' consent.

The states are seeking around $200 billion (€173 billion) in damages as well as significant changes to Meta's core platforms.

They are part of a coalition of 29 states that sued the tech giant in 2023 for allegedly building addictive features into its apps.

On Tuesday, opening statements were made in the federal court in Oakland, a short drive from San Francisco.

Megan O'Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, laid out the case to the eight-person jury.

"You're going to hear that Meta knew a lot about kids' brains," O'Neill said. "This includes how they are constantly seeking rewards, how they are sensitive to social feedback and how they are still developing their ability to control impulses the way adults do."

O'Neill said that Meta had researched these vulnerabilities and talked about how its Instagram platform could be changed to respond to them.

She told the court of a Meta study titled 'The young ones are the best ones,' alleging that for the company, "kids are the product."

Meta attorney Paul Schmidt said in his opening statement that there was "no dispute" that some social media users face struggles. However, he said that research showed no clear association between adolescents' social media use and their well-being.

Schmidt said that Meta had "tried to come up with tools" to help users who have negative experiences on its apps.

"Much of this lawsuit is about the government attorneys and their witnesses saying, 'in trying to improve, we'd do it a little differently,'" Schmidt said.

He argued that Meta's efforts to improve tools to help users on their platforms had been "meaningful."

Former Meta employee and expert witness Arturo Bejar testified on Tuesday, despite the company's efforts to block his appearance at the trial.

The former Meta engineering director said that during Facebook's nascent years, "the goal was to be able to get things into the hands of users as fast as possible, which meant that a lot of the time, safety or security was an afterthought."

Many experts have called the trial social media's "big tobacco moment," referring to the pivotal 1990 trials of cigarette makers during which they were held accountable for selling a product they were aware was harmful.

The eight jurors in the Meta trial are expected to issue an advisory verdict, but the final decision in the case rests with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

The trial is set to last six to eight weeks, with a verdict expected by October.

Among the star witnesses expected to testify during the proceedings is Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.