Meta has been deliberately designed by Facebook and Instagram so that children and teenagers spend as much time there as possible, even though their own research showed that this could have negative effects on them. This is the accusation at the center of the most significant lawsuit to date facing the social media giant in the United States.
The trial began on Tuesday in Oakland, California, and the jury is set to consider for about six weeks the allegations made by 29 American states, including California and New York.
The states are seeking billions of dollars in damages and significant changes to Facebook and Instagram, including removing the number of likes and infinite scrolling of content, as reported by The Guardian.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2023, in which Meta is accused of violating federal and state laws regarding the privacy protection of children, notes BBC.
What Meta Knew from Their Own Research
In the opening statement, Megan O'Neill, one of the lead attorneys representing California, relied largely on internal documents provided by Meta in the process: company research, emails, and conversations among employees, some reaching up to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
One of the internal researches on Instagram revealed that teenagers described their use of the platform in terms specific to addiction.
In another document, Meta researchers concluded that features designed to increase time spent on the platform conflicted with well-being and reduced people's ability to focus on activities that are valuable to them.
O'Neill argues that even though Meta knew its products could have negative effects, the company continued to target young people and made efforts to convince the public that Facebook and Instagram are safe for children.
The attorney summarized to the jury what she believes was the company's business model: attracting users, keeping them on the platforms for as long as possible, collecting data, and concealing the truth when Meta publicly discussed its products.
"Meta said it put safety before profits, but it hid the reality that, when a decision had to be made, profits won every time," O'Neill argued.
The Guardian reports that the prosecution also presented other internal documents showing how important young users were to the company. In a 2017 document, it was stated that Meta needed to attract users as early as possible and keep them for as long as possible. Another document described teenagers as an especially valuable category for the platform.
Meta: Documents Are Selectively Presented
The company rejects the accusations and claims that the states present an incomplete picture of its own research.
Meta's attorney, Paul Schmidt, cited an example of a document invoked by the prosecution stating that "1 in 5 teenagers say Instagram makes them feel worse."
"That sounds pretty bad," Schmidt said. However, the same document shows that 41% of teenagers said Instagram made them feel better, while another 41% said it had no effect on them.
Meta also disputes the accusation that Facebook and Instagram were designed to induce addiction.
Schmidt stated that the company acknowledges that some individuals may have difficulty controlling their time spent on social media and has introduced tools to try to address this issue. At the same time, the company argues that there is no research demonstrating the existence of social media addiction.
The attorney also referenced previous statements by Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, stating that Facebook and Instagram were not designed to create addiction.
How Many Children Under 13 Were on Instagram
One of the major disputes in the trial concerns children who should not even have had accounts on Instagram.
The attorney representing California argues that Meta found "millions" of 11 and 12-year-old users on Instagram and did too little to prevent them from using the platform.
Meta, on the other hand, claims that the number identified was just over 100,000.
The company also has another argument: the very privacy laws it is accused of violating would have prevented it from keeping and using some of the data necessary to effectively identify users lying about their age.
Stakes Could Reach Hundreds of Billions of Dollars
The Guardian reports that the attorneys for the 29 states estimated in a recent hearing that the sanctions could reach around 200 billion dollars.
However, Meta calculated that, in the worst-case scenario, these could rise to 1.4 trillion dollars. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers deemed this estimate unreasonable.
Beyond money, the trial could have direct consequences on how Facebook and Instagram operate. The states are demanding changes to the platforms, including abandoning the number of likes and infinite scrolling, the mechanism by which new content is continuously displayed to the user.
Among the witnesses expected to be heard during the approximately six-week trial are Zuckerberg and Mosseri.
In another trial held earlier this year in Los Angeles, a jury ruled that Meta and YouTube were responsible for the damages suffered by a young woman who claimed their platforms were designed to create addiction. The jury awarded her 6 million dollars in damages.