Dozens of States Face Off Against Meta in Landmark Children's Safety Trial
A Meta whistleblower testified the company detected "significant" harms to young people but failed to act, as a landmark federal trial over children's safety gets underway.
Phone with Meta apps, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsAppInsider Wire
A federal trial over allegations that Meta deliberately engineered its social media platforms to addict children opened Monday in Oakland, with the tech giant denying wrongdoing.
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Dozens of states are seeking financial damages that could total as much as $1.4 trillion in the largest trial of its kind. Meta whistleblower Arturo Béjar, former senior engineering and product leader at Facebook, was the first witness to take the stand, when questioned if he believes Meta used its research to improve wellbeing Béjar said research was not "effectively" used, adding that Meta detected "significant number of harms including harms to young people” but did not make changes.
United States District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight weeks with testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after testifying at a Los Angeles court in a separate case in February.Wally Skalij/Getty Images
The states alleged Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and teens, with features on the apps made to keep them on the platforms for as long as possible. New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement marking the first day of the trial:
“Meta has built their business around addictive feeds and features that put children’s mental health at serious risk. Protecting young New Yorkers from harmful technology has been part of my mission since taking office, and I am grateful to this bipartisan coalition for coming together to hold Meta accountable for exploiting and harming our youth.”
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, denies wrongdoing, and said in a statement: "We are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms and the amount of effort that we've put into developing protections over the years, even before these cases were ever filed."
It follows a landmark trial in New Mexico earlier this year, which ruled that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and hid what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.
This is a developing story, Insider Wire journalists will update as the trial continues.
