Meta Child Addiction Trial: Mark Zuckerberg To Testify In Oakland

Meta Platforms has denied hooking children to its apps. A landmark trial began in an Oakland federal court on Tuesday after a bipartisan coalition of 29 US states sued the tech giant over Facebook and Instagram. Analysts described the case as the most significant legal challenge yet regarding the effects of social media on youth.

California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey lead the states accusing Meta of designing its platforms to hook young users, fueling anxiety, depression and suicide. All 29 states also accused Meta of violating federal law by improperly collecting and using children's personal data. Meta and other social media companies, including Snap, TikTok parent ByteDance and YouTube parent Alphabet, face thousands of similar lawsuits.

Megan O'Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, told the eight-person jury that Meta's business model was to "hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public", Reuters reported. "It worked especially well for kids." O'Neill added.

The financial stakes are massive. Meta stated that potential civil penalties could reach $1.4trn, close to the Menlo Park-based company's market value. However, state attorneys general said at a hearing last week that the amount could be closer to $200bn, or about three years of after-tax profit for Meta. Following the trial's start on Tuesday, Meta shares closed down 4.4% at $543.67.

The Opening Arguments

O'Neill reported that the states are not trying to put Meta out of business, noting that social media has benefits for some people. However, she said Meta exploited children by researching how their brains react to online stimuli and tracking their interactions. An internal email sent to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri showed "teen time spent" was the goal, while employees viewed Instagram as a "drug" and themselves as "pushers".

"Meta found the younger a kid is when they start using the app, the better." O'Neill told Reuters. "Meta needed kids, and it needed to reassure the people who cared about those kids that the kids are safe."

The states want Meta to overhaul Facebook and Instagram. Their demands include eliminating likes and the infinite scroll, setting time limits for younger users and enforcing restrictions to keep children under 13 offline.

Meta's lawyer Paul Schmidt countered that while some users face struggles, research shows no clear link between adolescent social media use and a lack of well-being. He said co-founder Mark Zuckerberg shared the desire to improve services rather than make them dangerous. Schmidt acknowledged employees might use "loose" language in private, but said the products were not addictive.

"They don't believe they're going to do well if people don't like their service." Schmidt told Reuters.

Whistleblower and Witness Testimony

Former Meta safety engineer Arturo Bejar testified as the states' first witness. Bejar has long said Meta knew its child safety tools did not work, and has testified against the company in four trials. Meta had tried to block his testimony over deleted Signal messages with former employees, but US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected the bid.

Bejar told jurors that "move fast and break things" was a mantra at Meta, which took a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to monitoring whether children under 13 were online.

"Many products were shipped into the world", such as Reels short-form videos, "and safety was not a consideration in how it was initially deployed", Bejar told Reuters.

Zuckerberg and Mosseri are also expected to testify during the six-week trial. The eight-person jury will issue an advisory verdict, but Judge Rogers will determine Meta's final liability. If she finds Meta liable, Rogers could impose civil penalties and order changes to Facebook and Instagram.

Prior Legal Precedents

The lawsuit began in 2023, two years after whistleblower Frances Haugen told a US Senate committee that Meta knew its products were unsafe for children but did nothing to pursue higher profits.

Other legal challenges are mounting. In March, a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6mn to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child. Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567mn to address teenage mental health. Tennessee's attorney general is also suing Meta in Nashville over similar claims.

Outside the courthouse, critics spoke out as the trial began. Mary Rodee said her 15-year-old son Riley Basford died by suicide in 2021 after being victimised by a predator on Facebook.

She told Reuters: "They call it spontaneous suicide. I call it what it was, the predictable outcome of a system that protects corporations instead of children."