Meta faces trillion dollar lawsuit as trial opens over child addiction claims
Meta is on trial in California, accused by 29 US states of designing addictive features that harm children, with damages sought of up to $1.4 trillion.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A landmark trial opened in California this week that could reshape how social media platforms are designed and regulated. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is facing a lawsuit brought by 29 US states, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The states accuse Meta of deliberately engineering addictive features, such as infinite scroll and push notifications, to keep young users online for as long as possible, while hiding internal research that showed the harm these features could cause. The damages sought could reach $1.4 trillion, an amount close to the company's market value.
The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, began with opening statements in a federal court in Oakland. California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill told the jury that Meta had hidden the truth about the risks its platforms posed to children, drawing a contrast between public statements from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and internal documents showing executives were aware of bullying, violence and nudity being viewed by young users. Meta's lawyer countered that the company had been transparent about potential harms and had developed tools to make its platforms safer.
Outside the courthouse, parents who believe they lost children to social media addiction gathered with a banner bearing the names of young victims. One parent said, "She died by design. Meta's own engineers built algorithms, built an algorithm that knew exactly what to show a struggling 16-year-old girl to keep her scrolling." Another said, "Meta and others have built empires on exploitation and they hide behind outdated laws while families like mine live with the heart-wrenching consequences."
The case is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for Meta. In March, a jury in New Mexico found the company liable for knowingly harming children and concealing what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. The judge in that case later ordered Meta to pay $567 million, on top of $375 million awarded in an earlier phase, bringing the total to nearly $1 billion. The judge described Meta as a "public nuisance" and compared its platforms to a factory pumping out toxic pollution. He also ordered changes to the products, including limits on how long under-18s can spend on Facebook and Instagram, and a ban on push notifications during school hours and at night.
Earlier this year, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Google's YouTube liable for designing apps that harmed a 20-year-old woman, awarding her $6 million. Meta is appealing both the New Mexico and Los Angeles rulings.
On the second day of the California trial, a former Meta safety engineer, Arturo Bejar, testified that the company had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards children under 13 on Instagram. He said it was common knowledge inside the company that millions of underage users were on the platform, and that safety was never a consideration when products like Instagram Reels were rolled out. He also said he believed Mark Zuckerberg was well aware of the potential harms but misled the public about the safety of both Instagram and Facebook. Under cross-examination, Bejar acknowledged that Meta had policies to deal with bullying and harassment and had taken down millions of pieces of such content, but he argued that this was only a tiny fraction of what was reported.
Meta has strongly denied all allegations. In a statement, the company said, "We stand by our record of creating strong protections for teens and look forward to making our case in court." It has also said it will appeal the New Mexico ruling and described the claims in the California case as unsubstantiated.
The trial is being watched closely around the world, with the European Union and other governments considering similar restrictions on tech giants. Campaigners have described it as "big tobacco moment" for social media, arguing that the legal system is now the most effective way to hold companies accountable. The verdict in this case will be advisory only, with the final decision made by a judge, but its impact could be felt by billions of users globally.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | Channel 5 | BBC News | BBC One | Channel 4 | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A lawsuit against Meta was brought by 29 US state attorneys general from both political parties. | ||||||
| A New Mexico judge fined Meta over half a billion dollars for failing to warn about risks to children. | · | |||||
| A New Mexico judge ruled that Meta's conduct was a public nuisance contributing to a youth mental health crisis. | · | · | ||||
| Meta denied the allegations and said it stands by its record of creating strong protections for teens. | · | · | ||||
| Meta has been ordered to pay nearly a billion dollars in previous cases. | · | · | ||||
| Meta will appeal the ruling. | · | · | ||||
| Potential damages in the Meta lawsuit could reach hundreds of billions of dollars. | · | · | ||||
| Meta faced a potential fine of up to $1 trillion if found guilty of designing addictive products and illegally obtaining children's data. | · | · | · | |||
| The judge used pollution metaphors in the case. | · | · | · | |||
| The trial is expected to last about six weeks. | · | · | · | |||
| A jury awarded a California woman $6 million over claims that Instagram and YouTube harmed her mental health. | · | · | · | · | ||
| Bejar believed Mark Zuckerberg was aware of the harms but misled the public about platform safety. | · | · | · | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC News provided extensive analysis and expert interviews across its programmes, covering both the New Mexico fine and the California trial. It gave significant airtime to sceptical voices, including technology journalist Taylor Lorenz, who questioned the causal link between social media and mental health, and Oxford Internet Institute's Dr Victoria Nash, who discussed the financial impact. The channel also reported on the whistleblower testimony and the trial's opening statements, maintaining a balanced but critical tone.
- “I think it is definitely going to be concerning for Meta if more states follow suit.”
- “there is simply no causal relationship between social media use and poor mental health.”
- “It's been called the largest consumer protection lawsuit in American history.”
BBC One West focused on the detailed legal reasoning behind the New Mexico ruling, with reporter Shona McCullum explaining the judge's comparison of Meta to a factory spilling toxic pollution. It also covered the California trial with correspondent Lily Jamali, highlighting the scale of the case and the potential for changes to platform design. The tone was factual and explanatory, with an emphasis on the legal and regulatory implications.
- “very damning and brutal essentially comparing meta to a factory spilling out toxic pollution”
- “it had termed it had coined the term a public nuisance which is quite legally controversial”
- “This case is considered bigger than those big tobacco cases brought more than two decades ago”
ITV1 placed a strong emphasis on the human impact of the case, featuring emotional testimony from parents and campaigners. Its coverage highlighted the scale of the financial penalties and the potential for the trial to force fundamental changes to Meta's business model. The channel also included expert analysis from Dr Catherine Smales and detailed reporting from Washington, framing the case as a pivotal moment for tech accountability.
- “She died by design. Meta's own engineers built algorithms, built an algorithm that knew exactly what to show a struggling 16-year-old girl to keep her scrolling.”
- “It's the third time this year the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has been on trial but this time the damages could run into the trillions.”
- “I think the problem here is huge and we really need to work to push these companies to implement safer-by-design practices.”
Channel 4 News offered a deeply analytical take, framing the trial as a 'big tobacco moment' for social media. It featured interviews with lawyer Matthew Bergman and highlighted internal documents showing Meta employees describing Instagram as a drug. The channel also connected the case to broader political dynamics, noting Mark Zuckerberg's ties to the Trump administration and the push for regulation.
- “Meta's entire business model was to hook the users, hold them as long as they can, harvest their data and then hide the truth from the public.”
- “we believe that the only way to change their behaviour is to hit them in the pocketbook.”
- “Instagram is a drug, a colleague replied. Lol were basically pushers.”
Sky News focused on the scale and significance of the lawsuit, interviewing Politico's UK tech editor Isabelle Asher Hamilton. The channel highlighted the bipartisan nature of the 29 attorneys general and the potential for the case to force ground-up business changes at Meta. It also noted the broader industry implications, with other tech companies watching closely.
- “this one has been brought by 29 attorneys general in the u.s. bipartisan's Republican and Democrat”
- “they might want to try and force some proper like ground-up business changes at meta”
- “it would be you know potentially hundreds of billions of dollars”
5 News provided a clear, accessible breakdown of the fines and the trial, using comparisons to Meta's daily revenue to contextualise the amounts. It also featured a tech lawyer's view that the fines, while large, were unlikely to threaten Meta's existence but could damage its brand and trust. The channel covered both the New Mexico ruling and the California trial with a focus on the financial and reputational stakes.
- “the fine from Thursday's ruling is 421 million pounds and this is in addition to another fine from this case for 278 million pounds making the total around 700 million pounds”
- “That's 418 million pounds per day”
- “the bigger impact is really on brand and on trust”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.