A consumer protection trial against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, started Tuesday in Oakland.
A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general including California’s Rob Bonta made opening statements that Meta designed addictive, harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that drive excessive youth use, leading to severe mental and physical harm.
The trial is being held at U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, an Obama appointee, is presiding.
The lawsuit from Bonta et al, which involves 33 states suing Meta, claims the social media company unlawfully collected data from children under 13 and misled the public about platform safety. The suit was filed in 2023.
“They knew their product was dangerous, and they lied to the public,” Bonta said Tuesday at a press conference following court proceedings. “They lied to Congress.”
Bonta also criticized Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman and CEO of Meta Platforms.
“Mr. Zuckerberg himself chose profits over the safety of children,” said Bonta.
Meta – which did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment – has tried to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Attorneys general Phil Weiser of Colorado (a Democrat), Jennifer Davenport of New Jersey (a Democrat) and Russell Coleman of Kentucky (a Republican) are also part of the coalition suing Meta. They and Bonta are among the attorneys general present at the trial.
At the press conference with Bonta, Weiser said the reason Meta “deceived” the public is because to come clean and to take steps to limit kids’ access to social media would hurt their bottom line. Weiser also told the story of Ana Schott, a young girl from Colorado who Weiser said developed a social media addiction on Instagram and ultimately died by suicide.
“There are now a generation of kids who have lost sleep because of notifications and alerts all hours of the night, who performed less well in school because they were distracted and tired, and even kids like Ana, who died by suicide,” said Weiser.
Davenport said that, as the mother of two daughters, 12 and 14, she felt sick when she read the “effects” of Meta’s Instagram features on still-developing children.
“I’m disgusted, I’m angry, we all should be angry,” said Davenport.
Coleman – who was not present at Tuesday’s press conference – said in a joint press release earlier this week that attorneys general will “show a jury that Meta concealed what it knew about the harms” its products would cause.
According to Coleman, attorneys general are in the perfect position to get something done about this situation.
“We did it with the Tobacco Settlement in the 1990s,” said Coleman. “We did it with the companies behind the opioid crisis.”
Federal and state laws Meta is accused of violating include the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, California’s False Advertising Law, and California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Penalties could top $1 trillion, although the attorneys general have said this is mainly about forcing Meta to change its ways.
Besides California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky, the suit was filed by Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington state, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
By Chris Woodward | The Center Square contributor