Meta faces a trial in California that could force it to strip out addictive design features from Instagram and Facebook, and the company has said it could face $1.2 trillion in damages if it loses. State attorneys general argue the case could reshape social media well beyond Meta, with pending suits already targeting YouTube and Snap.
Meta says it faces a $1.2 trillion penalty in a California trial that could also force it to strip out core parts of how Instagram and Facebook work. The case could reach far beyond one company and reshape social media as a whole.
States target Meta's "addictive" design
The states involved in the case want the court to force Meta to remove certain addictive design features from Instagram and Facebook, including infinite scrolling, autoplaying videos, disappearing content such as Instagram Stories, beauty filters, and algorithm-dominated feeds.
During her opening statements on Tuesday, California's deputy attorney general, Megan O'Neill, said Meta chooses profit over safety and hides the reality of under-13 users on its platforms. According to CNBC: "This trial is potentially the end of social media as we know it," Forrester principal analyst Kate Winick said.
Winick added that any verdict against Meta would set a massive precedent, and the trials are often compared to the Big Tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, with the outcome likely to be analogous: the product becomes harder for young people to access and the cultural message around social media changes.
Other platforms could face the same reckoning
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Meta is just "first in line" as state attorneys general take social media companies to court over alleged harms, with pending lawsuits against YouTube and Snap as well. Bonta said he would ideally want all the platforms to commit to the same reforms at once, though that isn't possible in practice.
Winick predicted platforms with a younger user base, such as Snap, would likely make preemptive changes to align with whatever reforms the trial forces onto Meta. She said the trial is unlikely to permanently kill the industry, but it will significantly reduce usage over the long term as young users fail to be introduced to the platforms.
A precedent already set in Los Angeles
Meta and YouTube were already found negligent in a social media addiction trial in Los Angeles in March, brought by a young woman who said she became addicted to their apps as a child. She said the platforms' design caused her severe body dysmorphia, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Winick said the real existential threat to Meta and the social media industry is if similar lawsuits follow from adults alleging the same problems and effects.
Source: CNBC
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