A ‘dangerous product’: Meta faces a historic courtroom reckoning
Meta knowingly hooked and exploited children, a United States federal court has heard in the trial of the social media giant on charges that it deliberately made Instagram and Facebook addictive to young users.
In what many experts have called social media’s “big tobacco moment,” a coalition of US states is demanding Meta pay US$200 billion ($282 billion) in penalties for using technology specifically designed to foster addiction among children in a similar fashion to cigarettes.
A jury in Oakland, California will spend the next six weeks wading through claims by top attorneys from several US states and lawyers for the social media company.
Twenty-nine US states, including California and New York, are suing Meta, alleging that Facebook and Instagram have been designed in ways that harm young users’ mental health.
Meta has rejected allegations it intentionally sought to addict children to its platforms.
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