States to Begin Case Aug. 18 in Trial Accusing Meta of Designing Facebook, Instagram to Harm Kids

Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Oakland in a closely watched multistate case accusing Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram in ways that kept children and teens using the platforms excessively and exposed them to harm.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday that the states will begin presenting their case Aug. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by a bipartisan coalition of 33 state attorneys general led by California, is one of the highest-profile government cases in the broader fight over whether social media companies can be held liable for product design choices affecting minors.

The states allege Meta designed and deployed harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that drove excessive use by children and teens, knew those features posed risks to young users, and misled users, families and the public about the existence and severity of those risks. They also allege Meta illegally collected and used data from children under 13 on its platforms.

Those alleged actions, the states say, violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which governs the online collection and use of personal information from children under 13, as well as California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law.

“Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to keep kids on the platforms longer and longer — to the point of physical and mental harm,” Bonta said in a statement.

The trial is unfolding before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers as part of the federal social-media adolescent addiction litigation, consolidated in the Northern District of California as MDL No. 3047. California highlighted a trial team that includes Bonta, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport.

“Nearly three years ago, we took action because we believed Meta was putting profits ahead of the health and safety of our kids. Now we are ready to present the evidence and make our case,” Weiser said in the same release.

The trial marks a significant procedural milestone. In an order dated June 29, Gonzalez Rogers denied Meta’s motion for summary judgment on the attorneys general’s deception, unfair-practices and COPPA-related claims, allowing the case to move forward. Earlier, in October 2024, the court largely rejected Meta’s effort to dismiss key parts of the states’ case, although some theories had been narrowed earlier in the litigation.

Jury selection was reported to have begun Aug. 12, ahead of Tuesday’s opening statements.

Meta has denied the states’ legal theories in court filings. According to Reuters, the company has disputed causation and the applicability of some claimed penalties, and said penalty calculations advanced by four states could total about $1.4 trillion if adopted. Meta called that approach unsupported by evidence.

The case is a major test of how far states can use consumer-protection and child-privacy laws to challenge the design of social-media platforms used by minors. After surviving dismissal and summary-judgment challenges, the states’ claims are now moving from legal briefing to a public trial over what Meta knew, how its platforms were built, and whether those choices violated the law.