Meta is facing a lawsuit brought by over thirty states alleging the company designed its algorithm to keep children and teenagers compulsively using its platforms. The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Jury selection occurred August 12, with opening arguments scheduled for August 18. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are expected to testify.

A bipartisan coalition of thirty-three attorneys general originally filed the federal lawsuit in 2023, part of a larger coordinated action involving forty-two attorneys general in federal and state courts. The current proceedings involve claims associated with twenty-nine states, while California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are taking the lead on allegations that Meta deceptively designed Facebook and Instagram to keep minors engaged.

The class action lawsuit is the most serious legal challenge Meta has faced in its entire history, and if the suit is successful, it could permanently change the way Facebook and Instagram work. The states’ central accusation is that Meta allegedly engineered features in its platforms to exploit children’s psychological vulnerabilities because greater engagement generates greater advertising revenue.

The original complaint argued that Meta used technologies designed to ‘entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare’ young people. The disputed features include endless or infinite scrolling, notifications and other engagement mechanisms that encourage users repeatedly to return to the platforms.

The states also accuse Meta of misleading parents and the public about the safety of its products while possessing internal information about potential dangers to younger users. Separately, twenty-nine states allege that Meta collected and used personal information from children under thirteen without obtaining parental consent, potentially violating the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

Meta has denied the accusations. The company says it has spent years developing protections for teenagers, working with parents, experts and law enforcement, and introducing measures such as private-by-default teen accounts, parental controls, and technology intended to detect users who lie about their ages. Meta has also argued that it could not have deceived consumers about ‘social media addiction’ because social-media addiction is not a formally recognized psychiatric diagnosis.

The states are seeking nationwide orders requiring Meta to impose stronger age restrictions, establish strict time limits for young users, and eliminate infinite scrolling. They also seek to force Meta to get rid of certain notifications, delete algorithms, and redesign recommendation systems so that they prioritize users’ well-being rather than maximizing engagement.

A victory for the states could establish that social-media companies can be legally responsible not simply for harmful content posted by users, but for the design of the platforms themselves. Facebook and Instagram might consequently become less personalized, less continuous, and deliberately less effective at keeping minors online.

Such a ruling could also provide a model for lawsuits against TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and other platforms, effectively forcing an industry built around maximizing attention to reconsider whether children’s attention can legally be treated like any other commodity.