Meta stares down trillion-dollar threat as landmark social media trial begins

NEW: Landmark social media trial against Meta begins, with attorneys general of 29 states seeking massive financial penalties and court orders that could force the company to overhaul how Facebook and Instagram operate.

Twenty nine states just put Meta on trial, all at once.

Jury selection starts Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, and the claim at the centre of it is blunt. The attorneys general say Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to hook young users, to make the scrolling compulsive on purpose, because compulsive kids are profitable kids. Mark Zuckerberg has spent years insisting the platforms are safe, and now a jury gets to weigh that against a growing pile of research saying heavy use of these apps is genuinely unhealthy for teenagers.

The states want massive financial penalties, and the headlines are calling it a trillion dollar threat. But honestly, the money isn't the scary part for Menlo Park. The scary part is the court orders, judges telling Meta how its own algorithms are allowed to work.

Meta has settled fights like this before. This one goes to a jury, and juries have kids.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at japantimes.co.jp