A group of attorneys general is suing Meta over mental health risks for youths
Attorneys general from several states are bringing Meta Platforms to court over claims that the company’s products are addictive to kids and teens, and that Meta failed to warn the public
Transcript
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Opening arguments kick off tomorrow in Oakland in a federal trial pitting four state attorneys general against Meta. The states argue the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, aimed them at children and lied to the public about the risks. KQED’s Rachel Miro has more
RACHEL MIRO, BYLINE: The attorneys general are asking for civil penalties of up to $1.4 trillion. That’s roughly what Meta is worth on Wall Street. They also want a court order forcing Meta to change the features that keep young people scrolling. In pretrial filings, Meta has denied its platforms are designed to be addictive and argued social media addiction isn’t a recognized medical diagnosis. But internal documents in those same pretrial filings reveal Meta researched how teenage brains respond to dopamine, that little hit that keeps us engaged. They concluded, quote, “this presents opportunities for us.” This case is one of thousands pending against Meta and other social media companies in the U.S. alone, brought by states, school districts and individuals. But Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman says these platforms do a lot of good, too.
ERIC GOLDMAN: There’s so many communities that derive extraordinary benefits from things like social media, and nobody is representing their interests. The legislatures aren’t listening, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers aren’t listening
MIRO: But Jen King, a privacy fellow at Stanford, says internal documents show Meta could have made its platforms far more kid friendly years ago but didn’t because that would have cost the company money
JEN KING: You could design these products in a way that really neutralized a lot of the issues that brought us to this point
MIRO: And she says that’s why lawmakers and courts are now reaching for blunter tools
KING: The types of heavy-handed policy instruments we’re seeing floated right now – the outright bans, the age verification measures – are really the result of the company’s not giving any ground
MIRO: The trial is expected to run about six weeks. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify, so is the head of Instagram and Arturo Bejar, a former Meta safety executive-turned-whistleblower
For NPR News, I’m Rachel Miro in San Francisco
KELLY: And a note, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a financial supporter of NPR
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