After a defeat earlier this year in New Mexico, social media giant Meta is facing yet more legal trouble. This week kicked off a seven-week trial in Tennessee over the company’s impact on teens.
There have been concerns for years about the impact of social media on the mental health of young people, and there was even an advisory published last year by the U.S. Surgeon General. Meta Platforms, Inc., led by CEPO Mark Zuckerberg, is the parent company of two of the most popular social media apps, Facebook and Instagram and, according to the company itself, it has 3.9 billion monthly active users.
Pew Research Center data published last December showed that 31% of teens aged 13 to 17 used Facebook and 63% used Instagram. Lawsuits have been filed against Meta over the impact of social media on these young users, including one filed in 2022.
This March, New Mexico became the first state to win a trial against Meta for “misleading consumers and endangering children,” according to the New Mexico Department of Justice. In a landmark case, a jury found Meta liable for the charges to the tune of $375 million.
According to Law.com, the trial in Tennessee is similar to the New Mexico case and it concerns allegations that Meta violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. It said Tom Cartmell, of Wagstaff & Cartmell in Kansas City, Mo., outlined a case before jurors this week that indicates Meta designed Instagram to be addictive, “despite knowing the harms that could impact adolescent users with developing brains.”
Cartmell “showed the jury an internal document from 2017 in which Meta product managers wrote that features such as notifications and infinite scroll ‘are inherently at odds with well-being’ and said that the company needed to warn the public,” The Guardian reported. Cartmell added: “This warning never came.”
Former Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper of Bass Berry & Sims in Nashville is leading Meta’s defense, with Kevin Huff of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C., Law.com noted. It said Meta’s lawyer “urged jurors to pay close attention to the dates of the internal documents the state’s lawyers showed them, insisting that Meta’s philosophy, when it came to Instagram’s potential harm, was to find the problems, then fix them.”
“We think the evidence will show that Meta is doing its part and empowering others to do their part, because protecting teens online is a shared responsibility,” Huff said, per The Guardian.
The Guardian described this Tennessee trial as “long awaited” and noted that attorneys for the plaintiffs cited “internal research” on Meta’s impact on teenagers, that the company allegedly disregarded. Per the report, they also said Meta researchers “repeatedly flagged teenagers’ compulsive use of the platform – leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm,” but that the company didn’t disable features like autoplay and infinite scroll.
On the other hand, “an attorney for Meta countered the company has been transparent about the risks teens face on Instagram and the amount of dangerous content it finds,” The Guardian reported.
As of this Tuesday, the case against Meta is one 42 brought against the company by individual states across the nation. It was filed by the office of the Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and it seeks financial penalties and a court order directing Instagram to modify aspects of the platform that it claims contribute to addictive qualities.
“Tennessee law protects kids from companies, big or small, that mislead and hurt them, and we will continue to aggressively enforce that law,” Skrmetti said in a 2024 press release regarding Meta. If the jury finds Meta liable, the trial will enter a second phase and a judge will decide damages, The Guardian said.
This trial in Tennessee isn’t the end of Meta’s legal woes. Another lawsuit filed over Meta’s alleged harm to children via social media addiction is set to go to trial in August, in Oakland, Calif., according to a June press release from Attorney General Robert Bonta’s office in California regarding a court’s refusal to grant Meta summary judgment in the case. The Guardian noted that it is set to be the first federal trial against Meta.
