Meta faces a high-stakes federal trial over alleged youth addiction design

The useful part

Meta is back in the courtroom to face its biggest social media addiction trial yet. KIFI Home News Idaho Falls News Rexburg News Pocatello News Idaho Wyoming Utah Crime Tracker US/World Community All-Stars Scam Alerts Pocatello Police Shooting Vallow-Daybell Coverage Teton Dam: Business/Consumer Damian Dovarganes/AP/File via CNN Newsource Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Los Angeles in March.

How it works

• If Meta loses the case, it could fundamentally change how the company's social media platforms operate.
• "We talked about their motto, their culture, if you will, which was to move fast and break things," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a press conference Tuesday following opening statements.
• They also claim that Meta misled the public about the risks of its platforms and that it collected children's data in violation of the federal Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
• The attorneys general have said they could end up seeking a smaller award, and even if the court awards smaller damages, the states want an order to change how Meta's platforms operate.
• She cited an internal Meta document that she said is called "the young ones are the best ones," referring to the company's efforts to attract young users.

What to take from it

Meta had deep knowledge of those risks but repeatedly and falsely told lawmakers and the public that its platforms were safe for young people, O'Neill said on Tuesday. In his opening statement, Schmidt said that the company must balance the desire to catch and remove underage accounts with privacy considerations around verifying users' ages. By CNN Newsource Published August 18, 2026 5:00 AM By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — Meta's business relies on hooking young people and exploiting their data and attention, a lawyer for a group of state attorneys general argued in opening statements for the latest blockbuster trial against the social media giant on Tuesday.

Example or evidence

• He accused the attorneys general of cherrypicking internal documents and comments to build their case.
• The company has also claimed protection under a federal law known as Section 230, which says online platforms can't be held accountable for content written by users, and the First Amendment.
• The states are also expected to call additional former Meta employees-turned-whistleblowers and researchers who study the impact of social media on young people's mental health.
• It has pointed, for example, to parental control tools, default privacy protections for teens and reminders to take breaks.

Details worth keeping

Both sides outlined their arguments to jurors in federal court in Oakland, including Meta's claim that the states' case is not supported by the evidence. The states also called their first witness Tuesday: former Facebook engineering director-turned-whistleblower Arturo Béjar, who claimed that Meta prioritized moving quickly and rolling out new products over safety. "Unfortunately, the thing that was broken here was the mental health of kids." The case was brought in 2023 by a group of 29 state attorneys general who allege that Meta intentionally designed its platforms to get young people addicted, boosting its business and harming the mental health of children and teens in their states.

Related coverage

• Conservativedailynews: by Dylan Kresak at CDN - Jury selection for the first major trial against Meta's allegedly addictive social media design has begun — just days after a court cleared the way for similar lawsuits.
• Lpm: Four states are suing the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging that the platforms were designed to hook kids and that Meta hid the mental health risks.
• Npr: Four states are suing the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging that the platforms were designed to hook kids and that Meta hid the mental health risks.
• Westhawaiitoday: Meta Platforms will face a coalition of state attorneys general in a California federal court trial beginning on Wednesday over claims it engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, a...