Damages of up to $1.4 trillion: The mega-lawsuit threatening Meta

The largest trial to date in the series of "addiction lawsuits" against social media platforms begins today, Tuesday, in California. The consequences for Meta, which is being sued by 29 US states on the grounds that it designed Facebook and Instagram to make young users addicted to them, could reach $1.4 trillion.

"Addiction lawsuits" is a term for thousands of lawsuits filed by private plaintiffs, families, and school districts in the US against social media platforms — Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Snap — claiming they were designed to cause user addiction, particularly among the young, and led to mental and other injuries.

In March, Meta and YouTube recorded a resounding loss (TikTok and Snap reached a settlement agreement) after a jury ruled in a lawsuit filed by a young user that both companies designed their platforms in a way that encourages addiction and harmed the plaintiff's mental health. They were ordered to pay her $6 million in damages. Since then, the companies have reached confidential settlement agreements in several other lawsuits that were supposed to begin.

Now, the 29-state lawsuit is the largest one on the table. A total victory for the plaintiffs could fundamentally change the world order in the social media field, primarily by bringing Meta to bankruptcy. The lawsuit is led by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, who claim that Meta violated their states' laws when it designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive behavior and prolonged use by young users, while creating a false representation regarding their safety.

The broader group of 29 states is suing Meta, claiming that the company violated a federal law for the protection of children online by, among other things, collecting information from them without their parents' consent. A violation of the law entails a fine of $20,000 per violation — a sum that could grow significantly considering that Facebook and Instagram have millions of minor users. According to Meta's own analysis, the fine that will be imposed on the company could reach $1.4 trillion. However, at a preliminary hearing last week, an attorney for California said that the amount the states will claim will be closer to $193 billion, and that Meta chose the highest theoretical amount because of the shock it causes.

Alongside the financial lawsuit, the states are also asking the court to order Meta to restrict young users on its platforms, and to require it to remove addictive features such as infinite scrolling and algorithmic recommendations. Opening arguments will begin later today in the trial, which is expected to last about five weeks. Among others, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, past and present Meta employees, and experts in the fields of technology and psychology are expected to testify.

Meta responded: "The plaintiffs' claims are baseless and their financial demands are disproportionate. The attorneys general have not presented proof that their states were misled, and are trying to punish Meta for an industry-wide challenge like age verification."