With two convictions and practically $1 billion in damages already stacked up, Meta will face one other trial beginning this week about alleged harms to kids in a case introduced by 4 U.S. states.
Additionally learn | Meta faces Tennessee trial over allegations Instagram was designed to be addictive
The federal trial, probably the most consequential amongst a myriad of authorized proceedings focusing on social networks in america, will start Wednesday (August 12, 2026) with jury choice at a federal court docket in Oakland, close to San Francisco.
Opening statements are anticipated to start out subsequent week on August 18, with the trial lasting for roughly six weeks, adopted by a verdict in early October.
The attorneys basic of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey allege the biggest social media community on the planet intentionally made Instagram and Fb addictive for youngsters.
And they’re demanding a protracted record of restrictions on how Instagram and Fb function for minors, in addition to as much as $1.4 trillion in penalties — practically Meta’s whole market cap which exceeded $1.5 trillion on Friday (August 7).
CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is among the many star witnesses the prosecution plans to name to the stand; he additionally testified six months in the past in a separate case that occurred in a Los Angeles court docket.
Whereas Mr. Zuckerberg has been identified to spend an growing period of time dwelling at his house in Hawaii, the corporate’s headquarters in Menlo Park is about an hour’s drive from the courthouse.
‘Fb Information’
The Oakland trial is the end result of a standoff that started in late 2021, when a former worker, Frances Haugen, leaked 1000’s of pages of inner analysis, dubbed the “Fb Information,” which confirmed that Meta had internally measured the potential hurt Instagram was inflicting to some teenage ladies, whereas publicly downplaying the impression.
The revelations triggered a joint investigation by dozens of states, which two years later resulted in a criticism filed by round 30 state attorneys basic.
4 states will now try and show their case collectively in Oakland.
TikTok, Snapchat and Google-owned YouTube have additionally been sued by 1000’s of households, faculty districts and prosecutors throughout the nation in varied native, state and federal lawsuits.
In a landmark trial that concluded in March, Meta and YouTube had been convicted by a Los Angeles jury, which discovered each corporations had been answerable for a youngster’s social media dependancy.
That jury awarded {the teenager} $6 million.
On Thursday (August 6, 2026), a decide in New Mexico ordered Meta to implement product adjustments and pay greater than half a billion {dollars} in damages to the state to fund the remedy and prevention of harms brought on by Fb and Instagram.
A jury in New Mexico beforehand ordered Meta to pay $375 million after it discovered the corporate responsible for endangering kids by making them susceptible to predators on its platforms, amongst different harms.
Meta has appealed, or intends to attraction, all of those selections.
Meta is “assured in our file of defending teenagers on-line and can proceed to defend ourselves in opposition to claims that misrepresent the info,” Meta informed AFP in an announcement Thursday (August 6).
The corporate intends to argue that psychological well being is an industry-wide subject, and that a few of the states’ claims are protected by free speech legal guidelines.
In Might, Snap, TikTok, YouTube and Meta settled with a college district in Kentucky for $27 million to keep away from one other trial that was anticipated to set a precedent for round 1,200 comparable lawsuits.
Immunity over content material
The 4 states within the Oakland trial accuse Meta of violating their shopper safety legal guidelines, along with a federal legislation that protects kids’s information, referred to as COPPA.
They allege that a number of options had been designed to maintain minors hooked, significantly infinite scrolling, extreme notifications and “like” counts.
It is a technique that focuses on how apps are designed, not what’s posted on them, primarily sidestepping the broad immunity web websites take pleasure in within the U.S. concerning content material created by their customers.
The staggering $1.4 trillion in alleged damages comes from estimating the variety of affected customers within the 4 states.
Nonetheless, the jury may have solely an advisory position and Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — who oversaw main trials between Apple and Epic Video games, and Elon Musk and OpenAI — will determine on penalties, if Meta loses the case.
Dad and mom of youngsters allegedly harmed by social networks would possibly watch from contained in the courtroom, as they did in Los Angeles, whereas the remainder of the nation can comply with the proceedings from an audio-only livestream on YouTube.
Printed – August 10, 2026 08:39 am IST
