'Harvest their data and hide the truth from the public': Four states seek billions from Meta over child safety practices

Meta is back in federal court over a familiar accusation: that its apps do real harm to children, and that the company knew enough to do more about it. This time, four states are asking for billions of dollars and major changes to how Instagram and Facebook are run. The case began Tuesday in Oakland, where a jury will decide whether California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey can prove their claims against the company behind both platforms.

The states say Meta built its products to keep young users scrolling, then looked the other way when those same features fed into a youth mental health crisis. In opening statements, California deputy attorney general Megan O’Neill told jurors that Meta’s goal was to “hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data and hide the truth from the public.” She said the company studied how children’s brains work, including their need for rewards, their sensitivity to social feedback and their still-developing impulse control.

The first witness for the states was Arturo Béjar, a former Meta executive who worked as an engineering director at Facebook from 2009 to 2015 and later returned as a contractor from 2019 to 2021. He said Meta’s safety research was not being turned into meaningful product changes. On eating disorder content, for example, he said engineers had “very good ideas” for making the platform safer, but those ideas were pared back until they barely mattered.

Meta’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, tried to narrow the dispute. He acknowledged that some children under 13 lie about their ages, some teens struggle with time online and some users post negative content. But he said the company would focus on the safety work it does and the information it shares with the public. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the six-week trial, is expected to hear from Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and former employees.

The stakes are huge, even if the biggest number being floated is probably fantasy. Meta has warned that a loss could leave it facing $1.4 trillion in damages, though legal experts say that would be unlikely. The trial sits inside a wider pileup of litigation against social media companies, and outside the courthouse on Tuesday, parents who link their children’s deaths to social media harms held photos, tears and a banner with names and ages. One of them, Mary Rodee, said they had added 39 names since March.