Court told that Meta hooked children and misled public

Meta knowingly hooked and exploited children, a U.S. federal court heard Tuesday in a trial against the social media giant on charges that it deliberately made Instagram and Facebook addictive to young users.

In what many experts have called social media’s “big tobacco moment,” a coalition of states is asking that Meta be penalized by around US$200 billion for designing products addictive to children.

The states are intervening where “Congress failed to act,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday afternoon during a press conference, noting that — like landmark cases against tobacco companies from decades past — this case, too, involved “public health, and in some cases, marketing to kids that hurt kids.”

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

During opening statements, California prosecutor Megan O’Neill painted Meta’s business model as one intended to “hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public.”

Meta’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, acknowledged that some users had negative experiences on the apps, but argued that the company had “tried to come up with tools to help them.”

Before the trial began, the company denied the allegations, insisting it had worked with parents, experts and law enforcement to incorporate safeguards for children.

Former Meta engineering director Arturo Bejar testified that during Facebook’s early years, “the goal was to be able to get things into the hands of users as fast as possible, which meant that a lot of the time, safety or security was an afterthought.”

Days before the trial, Meta attempted to block Bejar from testifying, a move which the judge denied.