Jury selection to begin in latest social media addiction trial against Meta
Jury selection is set to kick off Wednesday in the latest high-stakes trial over claims Meta, the tech giant behind Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, designed its apps to be addictive for young users.
The trial is set to take place in federal court in Oakland, California, and centers on a lawsuit filed against Meta by a bipartisan coalition of dozens of state attorneys general.
The lawsuit alleges Meta has "harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens." It points to features like infinite scrolling and push notifications, alleging they were designed to get young users engaged on the platform as long as possible.
The lawsuit also alleges Meta violated a federal online privacy law by "unlawfully collecting the personal data of its youngest users without their parents' permission."
In a statement to ABC News, a Meta spokesperson said, "We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people."
"We've listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most," the spokesperson added. "We're proud of the progress we've made, and we're always working to do better."
This trial comes less than a week after a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $567 million and make changes to its apps, saying they contributed to a youth mental health crisis. Meta has said it will appeal.
Earlier this year, in a landmark trial in Los Angeles, a jury found Meta and YouTube, which is owned by Google, negligent in designing apps that harmed a now 20-year-old woman. The jury specifically found Meta and YouTube's apps -- specifically design features like auto scrolling, recommendation algorithms and notifications -- led the woman, then a teenager, to develop anxiety and depression.
Meta and Google said they would appeal the decision, with a Meta spokesperson stating at the time that it was "confident in our record of protecting teens online." A Google spokesperson said in a separate statement that the "case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site."
